PSC closely monitoring athletes' health and well-being amid pandemic
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is closely monitoring the well-being of national athletes as they continue to train for future tournaments during the pandemic.
National Training Director Marc Velasco said they are in close contact with national sports association officials to get updates on the health and training situation of the athletes especially after reports surfaced that some athletes have tested positive for the virus.
“We have a team of nurses monitoring the situation not only those who are reported to us, but also those who have been affected,” Velasco said in a press briefing Monday, April 26.
Last week, the Philippine canoe kayak team withdrew its participation in an Olympic qualifying race in Pattaya, Thailand late this month after three members of the delegation tested positive for the virus on the day of their departure last week.
Two other athletes from an undisclosed sport have also reportedly gotten the virus and are currently recovering from the government’s temporary medical facilities at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila and Philsports Complex in Pasig City.
Velasco said all the cases reported to them are asymptomatic.
The PSC, however, refused to divulge any more information due to the sensitivity of the matter, but assured that their Medical Scientific Athletes Services team “has been working very well since the start of the pandemic.”
“We are also monitoring the LGUs where our athletes are and see to it we are updated with the cases. We see to it that we are updated with their whereabouts,” Velasco said.
National athletes have been sent home to their provinces during the height of the pandemic in March last year, but various NSAs have resumed training in a bubble-type setting such as archery in Dumaguete City, fencing in Leyte, and taekwondo in Laguna, to name a few.
Other teams such as boxing and karatedo are in a training camp abroad in Thailand and Turkey.
Most athletes are busy preparing for Olympic qualifiers to the Tokyo Games in July and the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam late this year.
Meanwhile, PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez said they country is ready for the Olympics despite the rising clamor to postpone the Game following the increasing COVID-19 cases in Japan.
“Most of our elite athletes, mga beterano na yan. Kung dumating man yan, harapin natin yan,” he said.
Ramirez, however, believes that the Summer Games will push through.
“Japan is capable of handling COVID-19. They’re disciplined, organized, they’re a developed country. Naniniwala ko na magpapatuloy yan (Olympic), pero maraming tao ang hindi talaga makakasama,” he said.