The NFL has hit its first snag in coronavirus testing.
The Saturday night of COVID-19 tests in the NFL produced a significant increase in positive tests and the league is looking into the matter, and doing its best to identify whether they are legitimate results, since they are all from the same lab in New Jersey kamen.
The Jets were among the teams that were affected. Head coach Adam Gase said on Sunday the team had 10 false-positive tests on Saturday, which led to the Jets canceling their scheduled passage of Saturday night. All false-positive cases came back negative and the Jets went ahead with practice on Sunday morning.
The Bears, Browns, Bills, Steelers and Vikings were also hit. The Bears had nine players / staff members test positive, but later confirmed all of them to be false positives. They moved the practice back from morning to 1:30 pm on Sunday. The Browns canceled their Sunday practice out of caution after having several positive test results and shutting down their practice facility while undergoing a deep cleaning and disinfection process. The Bills also moved their workout back to Sunday, while they needed to keep some players out, while the Steelers’ six players failed to practice on Saturday to stick to protocol, but all six returned Sunday after team meetings. The Vikings had eight players, one coach and three staff members with apparent false-positive tests, coach Mike Zimmer said.
“Saturday’s daily COVID tests returned several positive tests from each of the clubs served by the same lab in New Jersey,” the NFL said in a statement. “We are working with our test partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs are working to confirm or rule out the positive tests. Clubs take immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to track contact, isolate individuals, and temporarily adjust the schedule, as appropriate. The other labs used for NFL testing did not have similar results. ”
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