Tag: infection

Saints owner Gayle Benson diagnosed with COVID-19

New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson was diagnosed with COVID-19, making her the latest member of the team to contract the coronavirus.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has again touched the New Orleans Saints, with team owner Gayle Benson testing positive for a coronavirus infection. News of Benson’s diagnosis was first reported by Amie Just and Ramon Antonio Vargas for the Times-Piacyune | New Orleans Advocate on Friday, who added that Benson is receiving medical care and recovering well. Nick Underhill reported for NewOrleans.Football that Benson has been working from home and was not hospitalized.

Earlier this year, Saints coach Sean Payton tested was diagnosed with COVID-19 and quarantined at home for several weeks while recovering. Three Saints players (linebacker Kaden Elliss, long snapper Zach Wood, and wide receiver Deonte Harris) have entered the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol during training camp but were cleared within days, which is believed to be due to false positive test results.

Benson inherited ownership of the Saints and New Orleans Pelicans in 2018 after her late husband, Tom Benson, died of pneumonia. She has since used her resources to upgrade team facilities, keep the Saints competitive in free agency despite often skirting close to the salary cap, and house nearly 180 team personnel and players in a “semi-bubble” at a nearby hotel during Saints training camp. Here’s hoping she pulls through.

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NFL will test players for COVID-19 daily for first 2 weeks of camp

The NFL will test their players for COVID-19 daily for the first two weeks of training camp to reduce the spread of the infectious virus.

The NFL will be having their players tested daily for COVID-19 for the first two weeks of training camp at minimum, following reports of at least 72 players testing positive for the virus.

Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s leading medical officer stated that at least two negative tests are mandatory before players can get tested or participate in team activities and that the positivity rate among players must fall below 5% by the end of the first two weeks to reduce the testing rate.

“There’s no finish line with health and safety and I think these protocols are very much living and breathing documents, which means they will change as we gain new knowledge about this virus, as we gain new knowledge about transmission, as we gain new knowledge about testing and there are new tests and new techniques that come online,” Sills said. “We very much anticipate that these protocols will change.”

Sills stated that reducing the risk of spreading the infection is the biggest priority around the league, so every team must take extreme precautions.

“Everything that we’re doing is centered around the concept of risk mitigation,” Sills said. “We know that we can’t eliminate risk, but we’re trying to mitigate it as much as possible for everyone. We know that this is going to be a shared responsibility.”

Sills said that this process will make the NFL environment and the people involved in it safer as a whole if everyone cooperates.

“What’s good for players and what makes players and their families safer also makes coaches, staff, and teams safer and, quite frankly, it makes our communities safer,” Sills said.

The quicker the spread of the coronavirus is mitigated, the sooner the NFL and the United States as a whole can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

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