With the NBA about a week away from the earliest time they expect to open practice facilities for teams in places where stay-at-home orders have been relaxed, the league does not want to catch itself in a firestorm over their access to testing like they had in the earlier stages of the pandemic in North America. According to a report from The Athletic, only about half of the league would be allowed to return to their facilities under current state and local regulations.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported on Thursday that the league told teams that players who are not experiencing symptoms will not get tested for the coronavirus, given that testing is still not widely available on a public level for people experiencing symptoms.
The memo states that, “for the time being, it is not appropriate in the current public health environment to regularly test all players and staff for the coronavirus.”
The NBA is clearly learning from the backlash that came their way back in March players from multiple teams tested positive for COVID-19. While it is true that the NBA finding players who had the virus accelerated the acceptance of the pandemic, the league does not want to appear insensitive to the current public health crisis.
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