SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA announced Friday that of 302 players tested for the coronavirus, 16 returned positive results.
As players returned this week to home markets in which they play, in preparation for the 2019-2020 season restart in Orlando, teams began conducting mandatory testing on June 23, with plans to travel to Florida on a staggered schedule between July 7 and 11.
The league’s announcement does not include players who previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus prior to the league’s mandatory testing phase that began Tuesday.
“Any player who tested positive will remain in self-isolation until he satisfies public health protocols for discontinuing isolation and has been cleared by a physician,” read a statement released by the NBA.
It is not immediately known if any Utah Jazz players are among those who have tested positive.
While names of players who returned positive COVID-19 tests were not disclosed by the league, some have publicly acknowledged their test results.
The Sacramento Kings’ Jabari Parker and Alex Len and the Indiana Pacers’ Malcolm Brogdon each released individual statements through their teams on Wednesday saying that they had tested positive but were looking forward to resuming the season with their teammates in Orlando.
Test results for NBA coaches, executives and any other personnel was not released by the league.
In a conference call with reporters NBA commissioner Adam Silver noted that the 16 players who tested positive showed mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.
“None of the 16 were seriously ill in any way,” Silver said. “That was also a big relief for us.”
Tuesday’s round of testing was the first in what will be many COVID-19 tests NBA players and staff will have conducted over the next several weeks and months as they move forward with the season resumption. Once players arrive in Orlando they will be subject to daily testing.