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The NFL defended its decision to play a game on Wednesday between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, saying it was convinced a COVID-19 outbreak among Ravens players and staff had ended and did not represent no threat for a new infection.
“We can confidently say that there is no active infection among the players, coaches and sideline staff of the Ravens today,” said NFL chief medical officer, the Dr Allen Sills, on a conference call two hours before kick-off.
All members of the Ravens travel party returned negative results in rapid point-of-service testing on Wednesday morning. Prior to that, however, the organization had produced 10 consecutive days of at least one positive test, including at least 14 players. The Ravens had to face the Steelers without quarterback Lamar Jackson, among many other key players.
But Sills said the league had used its contact tracing tools, from electronic tracking devices to genome sequencing to internal video, to project the likely course of the Ravens’ transmission based on close contact of individuals. positive. The league’s model came a day after accurately predicting the end of the outbreak, Sills said.
“We can really dig deeper and understand, did the virus go from person A to person B to person C? Or are they distinct strains of transmission that come from the community? Sills said. “We are putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to continue to paint a clearer picture of the epidemic. (…) We also used a guiding principle of when it’s safe to pick up and consider playing games, and that’s when we know the pass-through is supposed to have happened. stopped and that we have no concerns that current individuals are becoming positive or are at risk. We have been doing this consistently throughout this outbreak with Baltimore. “
Commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, called the league’s “remarkable achievement” to have managed 12 of his 17 regular-season weeks without canceling a game. He said the league’s “collective goal” was to finish the season and added “we are on the right track to do so” despite rising infection rates in the country. The league continues to discuss its options for the playoffs, including the possibility of modified local bubbles for advancing teams. Goodell has ruled out a conventional bubble that would put the league under one roof.
Speaking for the first time since refusing to delay Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos, for which all four Broncos quarterbacks have been placed in COVID-19 isolation, Goodell reiterated that the league would not take into account the competitive implications.
“Decisions in health and medicine have and always will take precedence over competitive considerations and commercial interests,” he said.
Three-quarters of the Broncos have been classified as “high risk” close contacts of quarterback Jeff Driskel – who returned a positive test last Thursday – because they did not consistently wear masks or maintain social distancing during a rally at the team’s premises two days earlier. Sills credited the classification with “high risk” for reducing the spread of infection at team facilities, and according to Goodell, more than 20 high-risk players, coaches or staff have tested positive for COVID-19 while that they were isolated.
Sills said the policy, along with one that put all 32 teams on “intensive” protocols, helped reduce daily positivity rates. A total of 156 people returned positive tests between Nov. 15 and 28, an average of 11.1 per day, according to NFL data. But in the past three days, Sills said, there have been a total of 10 confirmed positive tests in the league.
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