By Steve Keating
BEIJING (Reuters) – The coach of the Finnish men’s ice hockey team accused China of not respecting a player’s human rights on Sunday, saying that Marko Anttila was being kept in COVID-19 isolation for no reason.
Finnish Olympic team doctor Maarit Valtonen explained that Anttila had tested positive 18 days ago but produced several negative results prior to departing for Beijing.
When Anttila arrived in China he tested positive and was immediately taken to an isolation hotel where he is “not getting good food” and under tremendous mental stress.
“Marko has been with our team for about a week before we came here and he tested negative,” said Finland head coach Jukka Jalonen on a Zoom call updating Anttila’s situation. “He was with the players and with the coaching staff that week and nobody got any infection from him or from anybody else.
“We know that he’s fully healthy and ready to go and that’s why we think that China, for some reason, they won’t respect his human rights and that’s not a great situation.”
Valtonen said it is clear now that Anttila, a ninth round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2004 NHL draft, is no longer infectious and that China’s decision to keep him in isolation has more to do with politics than medicine.
“From a medical perspective we know that a person like this is no longer infectious, no danger to the other team,” said Valtonen. “These isolation decisions are not based on medicine or science, it’s more cultural and political decisions.”
More than 350 Games participants, including dozens of athletes, have tested positive upon arrival in the Chinese capital since Jan. 23.
Athletes wanting to leave the special quarantine hotels must be free of symptoms and deliver two negative PCR tests 24 hours apart.
Finland open group play on Thursday when they face off against Slovakia.
“He’s a professional athlete and he would like to participate in team practices and games in the near future,” said Jalonen. “He’s not getting great food and he’s a very big guy – he would like to have more energy and better food.
“Because he doesn’t know what’s going on and what will happen with him it’s like uncertainties so it’s a bad thing also mentally.”
(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
