Notre Dame announced on Thursday that five footballers have tested positive for COVID-19, while six others are quarantined through protocols for tracing contracts.
Amid a COVID-19 outbreak following the return of the general student population to campus in recent weeks, the football program Notre Dame conducted two rounds of testing this week – 232 tests in all. Five returned positive and those players were placed in solitary confinement, the school said.
Due to the growing number of positive tests on campus – up to 304 since August 3 – Notre Dame canceled football practice on Thursday. After another round of tests for players on Friday, the school’s medical staff will determine when the football team can safely return to practice.
Due to the growing number of cases among the student population, Notre Dame shifted from classes on campus to distance education until at least Sept. 2. That decision was made on Tuesday, August 18, just eight days after the classes returned. The school said Tuesday in a press release that the cases were primarily linked to “seniors living off-campus” and “connected to off-campus meetings where no masks were worn or physical distance observed.”
“Our analysis for contact traces indicates that most infections come from off-campus meetings,” said Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins. “Students infected at those meetings passed it on to others, who in turn passed the virus on to others, resulting in the positive cases we have seen.”
Since the football program Notre Dame returned to campus in June, 851 tests have been administered to players with nine positive tests. Two of those positives came when the team initially reported to campus.
Notre Dame – playing this season as a member of the ACC – is scheduled to open her season at home against Duke on Sept. 12.
Two other ACC schools – North Carolina and North Carolina State – have switched to online classes this week. UNC, which saw at least four clusters of positive tests in its community, put all athletic activities through 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Five Notre Dame footballers test positive for COVID-19 in the school’s latest tests. (Photo by Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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