Kuala Lumpur: The Nippon Badminton Association said in a statement on Saturday that five Japanese badminton players who are currently in Kuala Lumpur competing for the Malaysia Open have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the secretary-general of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) – Kenny Goh, players must be quarantined for 5 days after being tested COVID-19 positive.
“According to Malaysia’s epidemic prevention policy, anyone who was tested COVID-19 positive must be quarantined for 5 days. Therefore, if the infected players receive a negative test result on the fifth day of the quarantine, they will be able to play on day 6,” said Kenny.
Goh further commented that whether or not those Japanese players who tested positive could still play at the Malaysia Open would depend on the team leaders’ meeting on Monday, and the Japanese team still does not rule these players out of the tournament just yet.
There was a total of six Japanese players who were absent from the training on Sunday, including:
Mixed Doubles: Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino
Women’s Doubles: Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota
Women’s Singles: Takahashi Sayaka
Men’s Singles: Kanta Tsuneyama
Japan’s Kenta Momota attended the training at the Axiata Arena on Sunday, therefore, he was not one of the five Japanese players who tested positive for COVID-19.
