NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (US): The NBA, crushed by a December wave of players who have been put into COVID-19 health and safety protocols, has reduced the quarantine time for individuals who have tested positive from 10 days to six days, several outlets report. .
As of Monday, more than 200 players have been placed on COVID-19 protocols, according to ESPN, with nearly all of those arriving in December. Six major NBA coaches have also been put into protocols.
The six-day return is still contingent upon COVID-19 testing showing that everyone is no longer contagious through low cycle threshold levels. CT levels are determined by how often the test must be cycled to determine that a sample is positive for COVID-19.
The NBA will allow players to return after the new quarantine period, but only if the CT level is 35, Reuters reports.
The news of the NBA’s reduction to a six-day quarantine period comes on the same day that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the quarantine time for all individuals who test positive from 10 days to five days, if they do not show symptoms.
On Sunday alone, 27 players entered protocols, with the NBA ramping up testing in the two weeks after Christmas.
The new six-day quarantine period actually begins the day after a player tests positive, essentially keeping him out for the seventh day.
Although the league was forced to postpone some games, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this month that the NBA was intent on moving forward with the current COVID-19 surge.
“Of course we’ve looked at all options. But frankly, we’re having trouble coming up with the rationale behind the pause at the moment,” Silver said on ESPN’s NBA Today. “This virus will not be eradicated. We have to learn to live with it.”
The NBA is said to have a 97 percent vaccination rate with over 65 percent of players receiving booster shots. The league is also doing what it can in other areas, recently specifying that media and staff working near teams will have to receive booster shots by January 5.