Netizens question reliability of pre-departure COVID-19 testing as MMA event participants test positive on arrival

Of the participants who arrived in Singapore to compete in the professional mixed martial arts (MMA) event here, four have tested positive for COVID-19 despite having tested negative before boarding their flights, said organiser ONE Championship in a statement on Friday (9 April).

The participants — who hailed from Serbia, Brazil and Canada — all tested positive on arrival in Singapore on 4 April, necessitating a change in the event line up. The fourth person to test positive on arrival was identified by ONE is understood to be a cornerman of one of the fighters.

“As part of the stringent protocols for foreign participants, they were placed in isolation upon arrival. After testing positive for Covid-19, they were conveyed to a hospital for treatment,” the statement noted.

This is the third time participants have tested positive for the virus on arrival to Singapore for ONE events.

Back in October last year, two cornermen, from the United States and Russia respectively, tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Inside the Matrix event. They were kept out of the event as a precautionary measure even though the serological tests determined that these were past infections.

Then in early December, a coach of the ONE kickboxing light heavyweight champion Roman Kryklia tested positive, resulting in the top billing fight being cancelled since the fighter is a close contact.

As news of this broke, netizens on The Straits Times’ Facebook page were quick to wonder whether such events are considered essential for them to be allowed to take place as the pandemic continues to ravage the world outside.

Others were curious as to how these participants of the most recent ONE event could have tested positive before boarding but positive on arrival, bringing into question the quality and standards of COVID-19 testing around the world, and the risk that poses to Singapore as it opens its borders.

One netizen suggested that this incident is evidence as to why Singapore should only allow vaccinated people into the country while another suggested that vaccine passports should be relied on instead of COVID-19 testing results when allowing in-bound travellers.

Others questioned whether these participants had served sufficient time in quarantine after arrival.

There were also a few people who wondered if the participants might have been infected on the flight to Singapore, with one person even suggesting that the airlines they used to be banned.

One person asked who will bear the cost of the COVID-19 treatments the participants are incurring.