All NFL teams are due to operate on the COVID-19 extreme protocol starting Saturday

The NFL announced on Saturday that all 32 teams will operate under the league’s extreme protocol for the remaining seasons, starting on Saturday as COVID-19 infection rates continue to rise nationwide.

Among other restrictions, all players and coaches must be negative from the previous day’s test before entering the facility, in addition to the regular daily PCR test, which is an approved program that takes place almost unless all meetings are held outside or in front of the house, and masks are worn at the facility at all times on the training field. Are. All food should be served in crop and style to prevent people from gathering in the dining rooms. Locker room use is strongly encouraged on non-sports days.

The protocol also prohibits the exclusion of team or player meetings from the facility, especially an important barrier to giving thanks next week.

“The upcoming holidays, starting with Thanksgiving next week, will now introduce new risks that we need to look out for,” Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a note to the teams Wednesday, which was obtained by NFL Media. “Because we have a sophisticated program of daily testing that we know when a virus enters our facility, it underscores the importance of the contact path and other measures to minimize close contacts within a facility. Recent experience highlights the importance of minimizing high-risk contacts; in many cases, individuals identified on that basis We have seen that in a short period of time it has been positive. The effective action of the clubs to reduce these close contacts has prevented the spread of the virus within the club and we have seen many incidents avoided.

Until now, extreme protocol, It was launched on Oct. 1, Assigned to teams exposed to positive tests or team with positive tests. Twenty-eight teams are in serious protocol at some point this season and have voluntarily embraced some of the many restrictions. Since the enforcement of the aggressive protocol and the call for a five-day isolation period to identify a player or coach as a “high-risk close contact” that has tested positive, widespread outbreaks such as the NFL have been eliminated. The Tennessee Titans suffered a setback earlier this season, causing significant disruption to the schedule. The NFL has scheduled all games for the past five weeks.

According to the NFL, clubs with extreme protocol had a more than 50 percent reduction in overall close contact with others, compared to teams without extreme protocol. Even if the individuals on the team test positively, this reduces the risk of the virus spreading. The NFL also said that there are more than 20 positive tests that do not have high risk close contacts when teams are on extreme protocols. This, the league said, indicates that extreme protocol is effective in evacuating teams to all areas of the facility – for example there are limits on the number of people who can be in the weight room, for example – an important component in controlling explosions. No club that has been in serious protocol since its launch in early October has seen the virus spread.

But the NFL is undoubtedly plagued by case numbers across the country. Earlier this week, NFL chief medical officer Dr Alan Sills said genetic testing performed on every positive case had indicated that the virus had not spread within teams since serious and high-risk close contact protocols were put in place. . In contrast, the increase in the number of positive events on teams in recent weeks is spreading from the community outside the team – players and coaches catch the virus from someone they interact with outside the team, which is a reflection of the difficulties in playing without a bubble during the country’s failure to control the virus. Goodell’s memo said further changes to the protocol would be needed if the season continued.