The NFL may have had an issue with some of its coronavirus testing over the weekend, and some teams are canceling or altering their practice plans because of it.
The league issued a statement on Sunday explaining that there were inconsistencies with COVID-19 test results that were produced by a lab in New Jersey. Several positive tests were returned by the lab, but the NFL says other labs being used by the league have not had similar results.
Several NFL teams are altering or cancelling football activities today after irregularities in results from Saturday’s COVID-19 test results from the same lab in New Jersey. Statement from the NFL: pic.twitter.com/RhwzHQVsUA
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 23, 2020
Teams are taking precautionary measures as the NFL’s testing partner looks into the results. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Chicago Bears had nine players and staff members test positive for COVID-19. It was determined that those results were false positives.
Bears had nine players/staff text positive for COVID but, upon further review, nine results were false positives, the team said. Out of an abundance of caution, they postponed this morning’s practice to this afternoon at 1:30pm.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 23, 2020
While positive coronavirus tests could obviously have a huge impact on the NFL season, the same can be said of false positives. We already saw a situation this offseason where a star player had to quarantine because of a false positive. That has the potential to make life even more challenging for teams going forward.
