MINNEAPOLIS – When players, coaches, and other Minnesota Vikings team employees return to the TCO Performance Center for training camp this month, people will receive a proximity tracking device upon entering the facility to assist with efforts of location of contacts during the coronavirus pandemic.
The NFL has mandated that all team personnel must follow contact locating procedures, including the use of such devices, while on team premises.
Eric Sugarman, the Vikings’ chief athletic trainer and infection control officer, explained to Twin Cities reporters that the devices will monitor the interaction these people have with each other inside the facility.
The contact tracking system is specifically for those at the internal levels and will not include media at the 2M or 3OA level, Sugarman said.
While individuals at Level 1 (players, coaches, coaches, doctors, equipment and force and conditioning personnel) and Level 2 (property representatives, general managers, operations, soccer administration, communications, video and security personnel) can interact, those with a Level 3 designation (cleaning service providers, in-house media, transmission personnel, field maintenance, transportation providers) cannot mix with anyone at levels 1 and 2.
“Levels 1 and 2 will be together,” said Sugarman. “Level 3 will be the people who will not be able to mix with Level 1 and Level 2, and if you get closer to 6 feet from those people, your doorbell will sound an alarm. If you come within 10 feet, it is supposed to a light or vibration. I still haven’t seen the device. I haven’t had one on my wrist yet, so I don’t know exactly. But that, in training, is what was described. “
The goal of the contact tracking system is to track people who get sick in the building or test positive for COVID-19. Sugarman said the Vikings will be able to instantly generate a report that will show who a person has contacted in the past 24 hours.
“The contact tracking program we have will be very efficient,” said Sugarman. “There is a company that will monitor it and in a matter of seconds it will be able to generate a report. Let’s say we are in a training camp in a month and I test it and I have a positive test. In a matter of minutes you can tell who you were in contact with whatever the threshold, 15 minutes, etc., and I guess any contact tracking program for those people will be subject to more testing. “
The NFL has mandated that clubs assign three “COVID protocol coordinators” to administer testing, screening, contact tracking, and enforce protocols.
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