Report: College football players will require virus testing before every game, exposed athletes could miss 2 weeks
College football players who test positive for COVID-19 will have to sit out more than a week, according to a list of requirements drafted by some of the top college sports conferences.
Sports Illustrated reports the Power 5 conferences have been working out a list of minimum standards for coronavirus testing and response procedures alongside the NCAA. The document is not final but is expected to be released soon by the conferences and the NCAA.
A draft of the document obtained by SI says players who test positive for the virus will be required to miss at least 10 days of competition. Anyone who was had "high risk" contact with someone who tested positive will be required to miss 14 days.
"High risk” contact is defined as those who are within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes while one or both parties is not wearing a mask.
Teams will also be required to test football players within 72 hours of a game. Officiating staff will also be recommended to get tested weekly.
Additionally, the documents outline conditions that might lead to a school discontinuing competition for the season:
-Lack of ability to isolate new positive cases or quarantine high-contact risk cases on campus
- Inability to perform weekly testing
- Campus-wide or local community test rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials
-Inability to perform adequate contact tracing
-Local public health officials state that there is an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge in COVID-related hospitalizations.
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You can read the full report from Sports Illustrated here.