The focus at the World Championships, underway at the Gachibowli Stadium here, continued to remain on issues outside badminton.  After England withdrew due to a perceived terror threat on Sunday, Tuesday brought the news that a Malaysian coach was admitted to the Government Chest Hospital on Monday after he developed symptoms resembling swine flu.  Although the Badminton World Federation (BWF) refused to release his name, a BWF official said that he was Jeremy Gan, who coaches the Malaysian mixed doubles teams.  The official also said that a doubles player from Thailand was also being checked.

By Dev S Sukumar, DNA, Live in Hyderabad.  Photos: BadmintonPhoto (live)

No measures taken for spectators

But while the BWF has initiated mandatory screening for all players and officials, there have been no measures taken to screen the hundreds of spectators thronging the venue.  Dr. Mahesh Joshi of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Apollo Hospital (medical consultants for the World Championships), when asked whether the spectators weren't equally at risk and needed to be monitored with thermal scanners, said: "How I wish we had thermal scanners.  For now, we are thinking of monitoring the temperature of individual spectators, but that will have to be done using thermometers."

Following rumours of the Malaysian contracting the H1N1 virus, the BWF called a press conference in the afternoon.  Thomas Lund, COO of BWF, said the coach had reported a sore throat and mild fever, and was taken to hospital for a check-up.

"The coach was here at the venue yesterday.  After he developed flu-like symptoms in the evening, he was taken to hospital.  We will have the results within 48 hours.

"This morning he had no fever, so that's an improvement over yesterday.  The likelihood of it being H1N1 is very small."

The COO detailed several measures that the BWF was taking, including recording temperatures of all team members twice a day. The Malaysian team specially was being monitored closely.  Asked if any measures would be taken for screening of spectators, Lund said: "Our measures are for players and officials only. There is no contact between spectators and players, so the likelihood of players contracting the virus from spectators is small."

There has been no sign of panic at the venue, but a handful of spectators, officials, and police personnel were spotted wearing facemasks.

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