11 Florida Gators have tested positive for coronavirus, the university confirmed Tuesday.
A statement from UF spokesman Steve McClain confirmed the news first reported by Zach Goodall.
“Since April, we have had a total of 11 student athletes from several of our teams who tested positive. As we have said before, we will have positive evidence and, with guidance from UF Health, we feel we are well positioned to handle those cases. “
Florida was ready for the first first positive tests. Speaking to reporters on June 9, UF associate athletic directors of sports health Stacey Higgins and Dave Werner reported that Florida had two positive tests, from non-soccer players, before the UF officially returned to student athletes. At that time, Florida had evaluated 87 soccer players with 80 negative results and seven pending tests.
“We realize that we are going to have to live with COVID,” Higgins said. “We are going to have positive cases to deal with. Previously, when we talked about the back-to-campus plan, we had two student-athletes who tested positive and handled those situations. That is something that we will have to deal with, and we will have to live with COVID to be safe. ”
Although the university did not say which student athletes tested positive, they made it clear that the positive tests were not all from the soccer team.
Florida is not alone in having student athletes test positive for coronavirus. The state of Florida, the USF and UCF have reported positive results. Kansas State and Boise State recently suspended voluntary training after multiple student athletes tested positive.
