Notre Dame announces 18 positive COVID-19 tests, 25 players in isolation after latest outbreak
Notre Dame sent more players into isolation after the program had suspended all football activities due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
The Irish announced on Monday that 18 players had tested positive in its latest round of coronavirus testing — which were conducted between Tuesday and Saturday.
[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]
Seven of those 18 players were already in quarantine after being “previously identified close contacts.” The program now has 25 total players in isolation and another 14 in quarantine related to contact tracing.
September 28 - Testing Update pic.twitter.com/fubn0Dc0qD
— Notre Dame Football PR Team (@NDFootballPR) September 28, 2020
Notre Dame postponed Wake Forest game after outbreak
Notre Dame was set to take on Wake Forest last weekend, though it postponed that game after seven players on the team had tested positive for the coronavirus. The game will be made up on Dec. 12.
Notre Dame has suffered several coronavirus outbreaks already this fall. The school had more than 304 students test positive on campus in early August — including five football players — which caused practice to be temporarily suspended.
They are just the latest school to have to reschedule a game due to the coronavirus. Week 3 of the season saw seven postponements, including a Houston-Baylor game that lasted only days on the schedule.
The Irish’s next game is scheduled for Oct. 10, when they’ll host Florida State.
“With student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said in a statement last week. “We managed an increase in positivity rates in August, and the players handled it wonderfully.
“We knew COVID would present challenges throughout the season, and we’ll always put student-athlete health and safety at the forefront of our decision making. We look forward to resuming team activities and getting back on the playing field.”
There have been more than 7.1 million coronavirus cases in the United States as of Monday night, according to The New York Times, and nearly 205,000 deaths attributed to it. The country has averaged more than 43,000 new cases a day over the past week. Indiana has seen more than 120,000 total cases, and is averaging more than 850 new cases a day over the last week.
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