The NFL considers its problems with COVID-19 testing at the weekend an “incredibly rare event,” Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills said Monday, and believes its existing protocols have already proven effective in paving the way for the season 2020.
On a conference call with reporters, Sills noted that BioReference, the league’s testing and lab partner, has performed nearly 200,000 tests since training camp began. The league identified 77 false positives among 11 teams on Saturday and Sunday, the result of contamination in a New Jersey lab. The 77 people were eventually allowed to return to the team’s premises after being retested.
“We all want this [77 number] be zero, ”Sills said,“ but that’s a tiny part of the overall testing that’s been done. And I think that shows that overall our testing program worked really well. For me the most important is that we have been through four weeks [of training camp] so far, without any of our clubs having a major epidemic.
“It’s far too early to celebrate this, but I think we should recognize that our clubs have done a tremendous job – players, coaches and staff – following our protocols. Our protocols are working. I think we’ve shown that they are. have had the results we want, and the events of this weekend should not change that vision. “
During the most recent testing period, August 12-20, the NFL performed 58,397 tests on 8,573 players, coaches and staff. No player has produced a confirmed positive test during this period. There were six confirmed positive test results among other staff.
These numbers were an improvement over the previous period, which was already encouraging the league. From the start of training camp until August 11, the NFL performed 109,075 tests in total. The overall positivity rate was 0.46% on these tests and 0.81% for gamers.
The problem of false positives could be the NFL’s biggest testing problem, considering the impact they could have on a game. Current protocol requires any player, coach or staff who test positive stay away from team facilities and undergo two more tests within the next 24 hours, even if the person is asymptomatic. If these two tests are negative, the person is readmitted to the establishment.
That lapse of time could make it difficult for the NFL to eliminate false positives from weekend tests in time for weekend games. The league and the NFL Players Association are still working on testing protocols for the regular season, but Sills said the league will continue to “get it wrong in keeping people out of team activities” until a false positive can be confirmed to be false.
Sills, however, said the league and BioReference have identified the source of the contamination that led to the 77 false positives and have taken action to avoid future problems.
Patti Walton, an independent medical adviser who works with the NFL, said the contamination likely occurred when a lab worker was under a “hood” used as a “biological safety cabinet.”
“The transfer can come from the person working under the hood,” Walton said. “It could be from their hand or from their glove. It could be from the base of the hoods, the hood side, the glass. This is the reason why we have very robust cleaning programs for our hoods, we ensuring to clean before and after we process an analysis in a fume hood. The lab partner is pretty sure the contamination has occurred under the fume hood. “
Sills Sills: “These are really sensitive, delicate tests that are prone to irregularities like this. The key for us and our testing partner is to quickly recognize [false positives] and act accordingly, which happened. “
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