The NBA This Monday cut the minimum quarantine period for players who test positive for COVID-19 from 10 to six days, provided they are vaccinated and are asymptomatic, various US media reported on Monday.
The North American basketball league had been negotiating this measure with the players’ association (NBPA) for days and this Monday made it known in a memorandum sent to its teams, the ESPN sports network reported.
In its update of anti-virus protocols, the NBA maintains that a player can return to the courts earlier if he tests negative in two Covid-19 tests separated by at least 24 hours.
The league is going through an unprecedented COVID-19 wave that has quarantined nearly 200 players and six coaches (Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns and Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers reported Monday) just this one. month, and caused the suspension of nine games.
97% of NBA players are vaccinated and 65% of them have received the booster dose, as reported last week by Commissioner Adam Silver, who specified that more than 90% of recent cases are due to the variant Omicron.
To face the wave of infections, a march was launched on Sunday to reinforce prevention protocols whereby, until January 8, the league will apply daily tests to all players and staff, with the exception of those who have received the booster shot or recently passed the disease.
Until now, fully vaccinated players were not regularly tested this season.
The decision to cut quarantines was announced by the NBA coinciding with an announcement along the same lines from the US health authorities.
This Monday, the federal agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) halved the recommended isolation time for covid-19 positive people provided they are asymptomatic, taking it from 10 to five days.
According to the main health agency in the United States, this change is justified by scientific data that indicate that most of the virus transmissions occur early in the disease, generally one or two days before the onset of symptoms and in both or three days later.
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