Second Notre Dame football player tests positive for COVID-19
One Notre Dame football player tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month after showing mild symptoms, the program announced Monday.
Because the player, who was not identified, was displaying symptoms between the scheduled rounds of group testing on July 1 and July 15, an additional test was administered. The symptoms were identified through daily health questionnaires.
The player is self-isolating and recovering well, according to the program’s release. Through contract tracing, four asymptomatic teammates are also in self-quarantine.
The latest positive test result was the second to date for the Notre Dame football program since it started testing players and staff members in June. The first positive test, which also came from a player, was identified during the initial June 15-19 testing period. That player, who was asymptomatic, recovered and later returned to voluntary workouts with the program.
Notre Dame tested 103 players on July 15 and all results came back negative. The player with the most recent positive test result was not tested at that time.
To date, Notre Dame has administered 356 COVID-19 tests to members of the football program and athletic department staff, with two positive test results for a 0.6% positive test rate.
Daily positive cases have mostly been on the rise in St. Joseph County since the start of July. On Sunday, the state’s COVID-19 dashboard listed the county’s seven-day moving average as 45 positive cases per day. St. Joseph County has recorded a total of 2,524 positive cases from 34,267 tests (7.4%) since testing started, which is a slightly lower positive test rate than the state’s total numbers: 57,206 of 635,600 (9%).
Notre Dame remains scheduled to open its season against Navy in Annapolis, Md., on Sept. 5 or 6. The Irish schedule will likely have changes after already losing games against Wisconsin, USC and Stanford after the Big 10 and Pac-12 announced it would only play conference games this season.
