Professional sports leagues continue to balance the return to action during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the NFL is no exception. Recently, the testing numbers seemed to indicate that training camps were working to keep players healthy, but that may have hit a snag over the weekend.
According to Tom Pelissero, several teams decided to alter or cancel football activities on Sunday “after irregularities in results from Saturday’s COVID-19 test results.” The league released a statement as well:
Several NFL teams are altering or cancelling football activities today after irregularities in results from Saturday’s COVID-19 test results from the same lab in New Jersey. Statement from the NFL: pic.twitter.com/RhwzHQVsUA
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 23, 2020
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Browns had “double-digit positive COVID-19 tests from Saturday:”
#Browns had double-digit positive COVID-19 tests from yesterday. Of course, they're hoping the retests today are negative https://t.co/s15MtCwzPa
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) August 23, 2020
That led to the Browns being one of the teams to pause football activities.
The Chicago Bears also found that nine members of the organization tested positive, although according to the organization these are being considered false positives after retests:
This morning we learned yesterday’s COVID-19 testing identified nine players/staff as positive. We followed additional NFL-NFLPA testing protocol and confirmed all nine results as false positives. Out of an abundance of caution, this morning’s 9:20am practice was moved to 1:30pm.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 23, 2020
Hopefully this is just a testing issue, and not a sign of infectious spread.
