On Tuesday the UB athletic department announced 25 student-athletes have tested positive for COVID.
UB Athletic Director Mark Alnutt said the cases are from UB’s football, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball teams. Alnutt added that the individuals are in isolation and doing well.
“We have had very low incidence of COVID-19 since we began testing our student-athletes in June,” Alnutt said. “Per our health and safety protocols, we took immediate steps to curb the spread of the virus among our student-athletes and athletics staff.”
UB athletics conducted over 1,300 tests from Jun. 12 to Sept. 20 with eight student-athletes testing positive prior to the new cases just announced. Alnutt stated the positivity rate among student-athletes is less than 1%.
“Our athletic training staff, coaches and student-athletes have done an excellent job of preventing and containing the spread of the virus over the past four months,” Alnutt said. “With the rigorous health protocols we have in place, and with the dedicated commitment of our student-athletes and athletics staff, we will continue to protect our student-athletes, the UB campus community and the community at large.”
After one student-athlete reported potentially COVID-related symptoms to the athletic department last week, UB conducted 322 tests among student-athletes. The results indicated that 25 student-athletes — 19 football players, five women’s volleyball players and one women’s soccer player — tested positive.
All team activities in these sports have been paused with discussion of an Oct. 5 resume date.
Heath protocols for football teams developed by the Mid-American Conference will be implemented on Oct. 5. Protocols require antigen testing at least four times a week for all players, coaches and staff members.
MAC protocols will also require teams with a positivity rate of 2-5% to proceed with enhanced COVID prevention efforts. Teams with a positivity rate over 5% will be forced to stop competition and practice for at least seven days.
Anthony DeCicco is the senior sports editor and can be reached at anthony.decicco@ubspectrum.com and on Twitter @DeCicco42.
Anthony DeCicco is the Editor-in-Chief of The Spectrum. His words have appeared in outlets such as SLAM Magazine andSyracuse.com. In 2020, he was awarded First Prize for Sports Column Writing at the Society of Professional Journalists' Region 1 Mark of Excellence Awards. In his free time, he can be found watching ‘90s Knicks games and reading NFL Mock Drafts at 3 a.m.
