A day after a new season game was first suspended due to the coronavirus, the NBA reported on Thursday that two players tested positive for covid-19 in tests applied to teams over the past week.
As of December 16, 558 players have been tested, two of whom have tested positive, the league said in a statement that did not detail the identities of the affected players or their teams.
“Any person who has had a confirmed positive result will be isolated until they are authorized to leave isolation under the rules set by the NBA and the Players Association,” the text concluded.
Less than 24 hours after the opening of the new season, the NBA delayed the game between Houston and Oklahoma City on Wednesday as a preventative measure for possible coronavirus infections in the Rockets.
The Texas team was unable to submit the minimum of eight players available for the game after three of its members tested positive or inconclusive and at least four others were quarantined for prevention, the NBA reported Wednesday. .
The competition also endorsed Rockets star James Harden $ 50,000 for violating health and safety protocols by attending a private party inside Monday.
Harden, who has a pulse with the Rockets to be swapped to another team, could be available for Houston’s next game on Saturday against the Portland Trail Blazers, as long as he continues to test negative for Covid-19, ESPN reported Thursday. .
According to the network, the Guard, the NBA’s top scorer for the past three seasons, overcame the coronavirus before making the final playoffs at Disney World’s ‘bubble’ headquarters (Orlando), a circumstance that does not stop him. to comply with current antivirus protocols.
The suspension of the game reflects the challenges facing the NBA during this campaign in which, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, competition will take place on the teams’ courts.