It’s been a whirlwind of a day for the Chicago Bears, who suffered a COVID-19 scare that forced them to shutdown Halas Hall on Thursday.
After reserve offensive tackle Jason Spriggs tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, which also forced right guard Germain Ifedi to the reserve/COVID-19 list as a close contact, there was word that another offensive lineman had tested positive for the virus.
While there have been no confirmations from the Bears organization, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that center Cody Whitehair tested positive for COVID-19, which prompted the Bears to shut down Halas Hall and conduct team meetings virtually.
The Bears announced Thursday night that they had been cleared to resume football activities continuing under the NFL’s intensive protocol.
We have been cleared to resume football activities at Halas Hall.
Updated story ⤵️ https://t.co/vEYwMMYBx8
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 6, 2020
Everything happened pretty quickly on Thursday, as defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano was interrupted during his virtual press conference with media and told to end the call abruptly.
Head coach Matt Nagy did meet with the media following the rollercoaster of a day for the Bears, where Nagy told reporters they were waiting for confirmation on the positive COVID test and contact tracing process.
“There’s a process to it and that’s kind of where [the NFL is] at right now,” Nagy said at the time. “We just wanted to let them do that, and while they’re doing that, we wanted to make sure that, hey, with that being done, let’s go ahead and let’s just right now get everybody home, make sure everybody’s good, get a deep cleanse of the building.”
