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Alabama coach Nick Saban questioned the SEC protocol Thursday evening that requires athletes identified as close contact with people infected with COVID to be quarantined for 14 days.
Four of the seven conference football games this Saturday have been postponed, including Alabama’s trip to LSU.
“Look, the social traceability part is why these games are being canceled,” Saban said on his weekly radio show. “It’s not the number of players who test positive. Okay?
“We’ve been around and around this, even to the point where the folks in the federal government, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and the people who work for him told us that if you get it, you will have it in seven days. Okay? This is the science. Okay? You’re probably going to get it within five days, but seven days at most.
“So we can test the guys in five, six and seven [days] and let them come back in eight days and we quarantine them for 14 days. So you really need to quarantine yourself if you don’t have it – just because you’re with someone – longer than if you do. You are away longer and you might not even get sick.
“We should be using science to make sure we’re keeping people safe, but when we have science that verifies what’s safe, then we should use it.”
The SEC Medical Guidance Working Group requirements for COVID-19, last revised on November 3, provide for a 14-day quarantine period for all athletes who have been in prolonged close contact – defined as within six feet for more than 15 minutes – of an infected person. The requirements, first published in August, cite “current national guidelines” for enforcing the 14-day quarantine, and add that a negative test does not shorten the quarantine period.
For a confirmed infection with COVID-19, SEC guidelines provide for an isolation period of at least 10 days from the onset of symptoms or a positive test.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama Beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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