Even attempting to play a football season during a global pandemic was always going to require a significant testing plan for players, coaches, and team personnel. That plan looks to finally be in place, just hours before Cowboys rookies were set to report to the Star in Frisco.
The NFL and NFL Players Association came to an agreement on testing protocols Monday afternoon. According to USA Today‘s Jori Epstein, “players, coaches, and designated staff who interact with them will undergo COVID-19 testing daily throughout the first two weeks of training camp.” Epstein’s report cites confirmation by league Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills.
The plan provides for daily tests for the first two weeks of camp, but specifies that testing frequency could drop if certain positivity benchmarks are achieved.
The NFL and NFLPA agreed to daily COVID-19 testing for the first 2 weeks of camp, after which they’ll look at positivity rates. If the rate drops below 5% for players and Tier 1/Tier 2 individuals, they’ll move to every other day. Important deal as talks continue on other issues.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 20, 2020
“The original plan had been to test every other day,” notes Cowboys staff writer David Helman, “but many prominent players took to social media over the weekend to question the league’s protocols.” The daily testing with an option to eventually downshift to every other day appears to be one of the compromises reached during a round of conference calls between the two sides.
Our statement on Covid-19 testing procedures: pic.twitter.com/6mYF3aK0jm
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) July 20, 2020
Players will notably be required to test negative more than once before taking part in team activities or even entering the club’s facilities.
One other point worth noting on daily testing: The NFL contracted with a national lab to make sure their testing needs didn’t take resources away from local markets, which Dr. Sills said was "a driving force for us." No negative impact on local supply for hospitals, etc.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 20, 2020
How team personnel move throughout their facilities while practicing and conducting official business has been left up to the individual clubs. All 32 organizations were required to submit detailed infectious disease emergency response (IDER) plans that separated personnel into tiers and laid out who could be where and when during team activities.
Teams will “require daily temperature screening, symptom monitoring, social distancing, and masks,” but Epstein points out that players will also wear “Apple Watch-like” proximity trackers to help with contact tracing when a test comes back positive.
The final testing protocol agreed to by the NFL and NFLPA extends the initial screening timeline, I’m told:
Players will be tested on Days 1 and 4 of camp, with two days of remote education in between. Waiting another day helps make sure to capture the virus as it incubates.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 20, 2020
“If a player tests positive but has no symptoms,” writes NFL.com columnist Judy Battista, “he can return to the facility 10 days after the initial positive test or if he receives two consecutive negative tests within five days of the initial positive test. If the player has a positive test and symptoms, he can return after at least 10 days have passed since the symptoms first appeared and at least 72 hours have passed since he last experienced symptoms.”
Despite all these safeguards and precautions, Dr. Sills emphasized that it will be up to players and staff to modify their typical behavior, both at the team facilities and away from it, to mitigate the risk of infection and minimize spread.
“We cannot test our way to safety,” Sills said.
But as of now anyway, it appears that the league can test its way to the start of training camp.
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