Duke testing shows 25 athletes positive for COVID-19; team activities continue
While 25 Duke athletes have tested positive for coronavirus since they began returning to campus in mid-July, 16 of them have since been cleared to return to team activities while nine others remain in isolation, school officials said Friday night.
The first public report detailing coronavrius cases since Duke athletes began arriving on campus July 12 showed 309 tests administered to athletes, coaches and staff, according to information released by the school.
The majority of the positive cases, the school’s release said, derived from athletes who tested positive upon arrival.
No coaches or staff members have tested positive and none of the positive tests have led to Duke pausing any team-related activities.
“We are foremost concerned for player safety, and with finding ways to balance the desire to have a vibrant athletic culture on campus, with the reality that COVID-19 is a highly transmissible infection,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an associate professor of medicine at Duke and chair of the ACC’s Medical Advisory Group for COVID-19 said in a statement. “To that end, an aggressive testing strategy is paramount — identifying positive asymptomatic student-athletes, who may be capable of inadvertently transmitting the virus, is crucial. Duke is finding and isolating cases early in the season, prepared to quarantine when necessary, and by combining a regular batch testing program with multi-pronged mitigation strategies, we believe athletics can and will be successful at Duke.”
Even as other schools around the country, including many in the ACC, allowed their athletes back on campus in June, Duke didn’t allow them back until July 12 when its football players arrived. Other Duke fall sports saw their athletes return in phases over the rest of the month, with women’s soccer arriving July 21 and volleyball July 27 followed by field hockey, men’s and women’s cross country and men’s soccer on July 29.
Duke’s men’s and women’s basketball players are due to arrive on Sunday.
A number of schools around the country reported outbreaks involving dozens of people testing positive for the virus. UNC announced 37 positive tests among its athletes, coaches and staff on July 8. After pausing its workouts, UNC announced July 21 they had resumed because the viral spread had been mitigated.
N.C. State athletes began returning on June 20 for voluntary workouts. On July 9, school officials announced they had completed 315 tests and found five positives. On Friday, N.C. State announced 280 additional tests had been completed with two positive tests recorded.
In total, N.C. State spokesman Fred Demarest said, N.C. State has completed 595 tests with seven positive results.
At Duke, all of its athletes who tested positive were asymptomatic or experienced mild symptoms. They were treated with rest and over-the-counter medicine.
While Duke put together a 115-page plan outlining a mitigation strategy, the school’s senior associate athletics director for facilities and game operations, Bob Weiseman, said six areas of focus were most important for the athletes and staff.
In a podcast produced by Duke’s athletics department earlier this month, Weiseman said the six were: testing upon arrival, daily symptom checks, enhanced personal hygiene, cleaning and disinfection of spaces, the wearing of face coverings and staying physically distant.
The work toward keeping Duke athletics as free from coronavirus as possible began before the Duke’s athletes even left home for Durham. They were instructed to self-quarantine at home for 14 days before traveling to campus.
Upon arrival, each athlete was checked for symptoms and tested for coronavirus by Duke’s medical staff before they headed to their living quarters to move in or entered any other campus facility.
Duke prepared back-to-campus kits for the athletes that included face coverings, hand sanitizer and a copper utility tool to reduce touch points, such as elevator keys.
Athletes were strictly quarantined until their test results came back. The school partnered with MAKO Medical, allowing it to initially receive test results back within 16 hours, Weiseman said. When more and more athletes arrived, the results were expected back within 24 to 48 hours.
While some athletes had off-campus housing, others stayed on campus at the Washington Duke Inn. Some students who are not athletes are also being housed at the Washington Duke, Weiseman said. Even in pre-pandemic times, Duke students were able to use their campus meal plan points to dine at the Washington Duke Inn’s restaurants.
Some athletes had single rooms at the Washington Duke this month but most paired up in the roughly 200 square foot rooms.
Anyone who tested positive or started showing symptoms was isolated in a separate rooms at the hotel. Duke’s nutritional staff worked with the Washington Duke’s dining staff to get food to those who were isolating.
“It’s a real big bonus to us to have close proximity and have such a nice hotel,” Weiseman said.
Even after the initial testing, Duke’s athletes have been tested on a weekly basis in an effort to find any asymptomatic spreaders of the virus and head off a potential outbreak.
Teams are holding as many meetings virtually as possible. When they do meet in person, participants are masked and physically distant.
When the football coaches returned to campus in June, Weiseman said, in-person meetings included 10 people in a room built for 50 people.
Athletes will not be required to wear masks while practicing or doing any activity with heavy exertion. They also aren’t required to wear them in the weight room but Weiseman said they are encouraged to do so.
“Almost every time we are not on the field or on the court,” he said, “we will be pushing and encouraging people to wear masks.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 7:09 PM.