The NBA postponed the next two games for the Chicago Bulls due the team’s COVID-19 outbreak, which placed 10 players in the league’s health and safety protocols in a two-week period.
The Bulls were set to host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday and then travel to Toronto to face the Raptors on Thursday. No makeup dates were announced.
Ten Bulls players have landed in the NBA’s COVID-19 protocol since Dec. 1. The Bulls haven’t been able to last 48 hours without a new player being yanked into quarantine, with four players entering the protocol this past weekend alone.
In only 13 days, the Bulls had more active players enter the COVID-19 protocol than any other team in the league: Coby White (Dec. 1), Javonte Green (Dec. 3), DeMar DeRozan (Dec. 5), Matt Thomas (Tuesday), Derrick Jones Jr. (Thursday), Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson (Saturday), Zach LaVine and Tony Brown Jr. (Sunday) and Alize Johnson (Monday). Nikola Vučević also previously spent 11 days in isolation after testing positive Nov. 11.
Bulls broadcasters Stacey King and Bill Wennington also entered the league’s COVID-19 protocols in the last week.
The Bulls have gone 3-2 since the onset of the outbreak, suffering back-to-back blowouts on the road this week as the number of players in quarantine ballooned.
The entire Bulls roster received both doses of the vaccine earlier this year, and Vučević confirmed Saturday that most of his teammates received booster shots when they were made available this month. But these teamwide efforts haven’t protected the Bulls from the largest outbreak of the NBA season.
Despite the widespread effect of the virus, Bulls players have only reported mild symptoms comparable to a cold. Coach Billy Donovan said many of the players in protocol are asymptomatic.
COVID-related hospitalizations spiked by a rate of 38% this week, returning to the highest levels since late April according to Illinois public health officials. The spike caused concern for officials ahead of expected increases in travel and gatherings due to the holiday season.
