Report: NFL's SoFi Stadium reaches 49 coronavirus cases among workers after latest wave
The count of coronavirus cases among workers at the NFL’s SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles continues to rise.
In the last week or so, 16 more workers have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Nathan Fenno. That reportedly brings the total number of cases at the stadium up to 49.
Seven more workers at an adjacent construction site, the new NFL Media facility, have also reportedly tested positive.
The developers in charge of construction reportedly downplayed the cases to the Times:
Turner-AECOM Hunt, the joint venture leading the stadium project, said in a statement it has a “robust mitigation program” to combat the spread of the illness that includes close contract tracing for positive and presumed positive cases.
“To put the number of confirmed cases in perspective, over the past five months there have been in excess of 4,000 people on site,” the statement said.
The first coronavirus case arrived to SoFi Stadium at the end of March. Work on the stadium has not been halted thanks to a decision from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to exempt construction work from stay-at-home orders. Cases in Los Angeles have recently hit an all-time high.
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There are reportedly no plans to halt construction as the stadium, the future home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, hits its final stages. SoFi Stadium is set to be the most expensive stadium construction project in sports history at a whopping $5 billion.
The developers told the Times earlier this month that the project is 97 percent complete. Of course, it’s unknown when fans will actually be able to watch games at the stadium.
SoFi Stadium has hardly been the only football construction project to see a significant number of cases. New Orleans’ Mercedes-Benz Superdome announced last month that 12 percent of the workers on its ongoing renovations had tested positive. More than a dozen workers at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium tested positive as early as May. And Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium has seen its own outbreak.
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