New Delhi: Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy have tested positive for covid-19 and withdrawn from the Thailand Open 2021 due to the same. "Two Indian players, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy, have tested positive for Covid-19. Both players have withdrawn from the tournament and have been isolated in a hospital for a minimum of 10 days," the Badminton Association of India (BAI) confirmed on their official Twitter handle.
"BAI is in constant touch with BWF, team management, players and organiser," it added.
Both the players had flown to Bangkok to participate in the Thailand Open 2021 and tested positive in the third round of tests. Meanwhile, Saina's husband Parupalli Kashyap has also been forced to withdraw from the event as he is a close contact of both the players who tested positive for the novel virus. He was scheduled to play Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada later on Thursday. Kashyap has been taken for another round of testing while Saina and Prannoy have been quarantined in Bangkok.
Saina was slated to take on Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia in her opening round contest on Tuesday who has now been given a walkover. Prannoy, on the other hand, was scheduled to take on Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in his opening round contest.
Notably, this is the second time that Saina and Prannoy have tested positive for covid-19. Last month, the two along with Parupali Kashyap were found positive during Gurusaidutt's wedding in Hyderabad. All of them had spent the quarantine duration together and tested negative for covid-19 before arriving for Thailand 2021.
India has started their campaign with a positive note with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa registirng victory against Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Wildjaja.
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