Following the administration of 1,488 COVID-19 tests over the past seven days, Virginia’s athletic department reported just one positive test result among student-athletes and staff. This is the lowest amount of positive cases since the spring semester began, following last week’s four positive results. This week’s positivity rate of 0.07 percent brings the overall rate since testing began July 5 to 0.8 percent.
All positive tests were reported to the Blue Ridge Health District of the Virginia Department of Health.
The individual that tested positive was notified, and they will be required to “self-isolate for at least 10 days, or until symptoms are resolving plus 24-hours fever free — whichever is longer.” They will face medical evaluation before returning to play. Additionally, close contacts will be traced and they will be required to quarantine for either 10 days without a test or seven pending a negative test result on their fifth day since exposure.
Virginia adheres to ACC guidelines which require triweekly testing for sports considered high risk — including men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball and wrestling. Lower-risk sports — which include swimming, diving, golf, tennis and track and field — are tested once weekly. This semester features fall, winter and spring sports all competing simultaneously, as four fall sports have returned to action in preparation for their upcoming ACC and NCAA tournaments.
“Protecting the health and safety of participants and fans during NCAA championships remains the NCAA’s priority,” the NCAA said in a release to KSAT, a local San Antonio news site. “We will continue to work closely with local medical authorities, the NCAA COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group, and CDC guidelines to determine the appropriate health and safety protocols for our events.”
The safety measures and coronavirus outlook for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament can be found in last week’s COVID-19 update. The Virginia’s men’s basketball team enters this week as the top seed in the ACC Tournament which will begin play this Thursday and conclude on Saturday. Questions surrounded Virginia Tech’s participation in the tournament as their program faced a pause to undergo contact tracing, but Coach Mike Young reported today that they had no positive cases, and they will be making the trip to Greensboro, N.C. to play in the ACC quarterfinals Thursday.
“We’re healthy. We’ve been healthy. This contact tracing — it’s an animal,” Young said. “We continue to get nicked up by it.”
Virginia’s softball team postponed its Tuesday game against Virginia Tech to March 30 as a result of COVID-19 impacting the Hokies. In the midst of a four-game skid in which the team was swept by Clemson, the Cavaliers will now have a break until Friday where they will face Duke in another four-game series.
The trend of diminishing positive test results at the University continued this week in the aftermath of a dramatic spike in cases that occurred in mid-February. Since Feb. 16, when cases hit their peak with a University-wide high of 229 in a single day, positive tests within the athletic department and within the university community as a whole are continuing to drop. There are currently 84 active cases overall. The seven-day average positivity rate of all students, faculty, staff and contract workers currently sits at 0.26 — the lowest it has been since the spring semester began. Quarantine housing for students exposed to the virus is 3 percent full, with isolation housing for students who test positive currently operating at just 1 percent of its maximum capacity. This information can be found on the University’s COVID tracker, which is updated Monday through Friday at 4 p.m.
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