In addition to the anxiety currently plaguing the NBA amid rising COVID-19 cases, several players who previously tested positive for coronavirus tested positive for the second time, sources told ESPN.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines “reinfection” as a person who contracts an infection, recovers, and then becomes infected again. Studies are underway on how long immunity can last, but the CDC says it expects some coronavirus reinfections.
The NBA has announced more than 100 positive tests since last summer, but the actual number in March is considered to be significantly higher. Different teams have more than 10 players who have given positive results at some point in the last nine months, sources said.
As testing was less available and there were higher false positive rates at the beginning of the pandemic, there is some uncertainty about the number of players who had true positives at the beginning of 2020, especially during the close of the season. three-month league.
It is possible that some players who tested positive for the virus, but who were asymptomatic a few months ago, were falsely positive. Some players have been tested for antibody levels to determine their immunity level. But there is currently no league-level procedure for conducting periodic tests.
Team and league doctors evaluate each test positive and each player exposed on a case-by-case basis because the nature of the virus is still uncertain, league officials said. For example, players who have tested positive in the last 90 days are sometimes treated differently from players who tested positive last summer because of how the virus might continue to appear in their system.
The league’s bureau, the National Association of Basketball Players, teams and agencies have been in talks in recent days to consider changes to the protocol to limit the spread that has delayed three games. The league has already placed players who previously had the virus (Kevin Durant of Brooklyn and Bam Adebayo of Miami are two examples) in health and safety quarantine for a week after being exposed to an infected person for fear of reinfecting or spreading the virus.
According to current CDC guidelines, the duration of immunity after a Covid-19 infection is not yet understood. Some reinfections are expected, based on knowledge of other coronaviruses, but are thought to be rare.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this story.