London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and men’s singles player H.S. Prannoy have tested COVID-19 positive forcing them to pull out of the ongoing Thailand Open Badminton Championship on Tuesday.

Saina was supposed to play Kisona Salvaduray of Malaysia in the first round on Tuesday.

This also puts a question mark on the participation of the other Indian players including World Champion P.V. Sindhu as it is learnt that the opponents might not be keen to play against a player who is part of the Indian team that has COVID-19 positive cases.

According to sources close to the players, both Saina and Prannoy have withdrawn from the event and will be in isolation in a hospital for a minimum of 10 days.

The Thai Open happened to be the first major event where a full-strength Indian badminton squad was supposed to be in action after the pandemic broke out last March though some of the leading players like Kidambi Srikanth have taken part in the Denmark Open late last year.

H.S. Prannoy has tested positive for COVID-19.   -  REUTERS

In a communication to the team management, the organisers have stated that all the members of the Indian contingent are now categorised as high-risk and have to self-quarantine in their hotel rooms.

The officials also informed that the Indian contingent will be contacted by COVID-19 testing team to perform another PCR test later on Tuesday in the hotel.

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Only players scheduled to play on Tuesday will be allowed to enter the venue and no coaches, managers or other personnel will be allowed, the officials said.

The positive case protocol in Thailand states that patients will be tested and monitored and will be discharged by the local health authorities.

Roommates and doubles partners are automatically classified as direct contact and also will be withdrawn and isolated in a different room.