Play.
As more positive COVID-19 tests come to light, what to expect?
Dalvin Cook and the Saints are on the list of players and teams with COVID-19 issues. (0:55)
5:19 PM
The new COVID-19 protocols are based on data that shows the disease is not spreading from people who are not sick, according to Allen Sills, the chief medical officer.
Random testing of a sample across teams and positions will begin next week after the NFL and Players Association agreed to stop weekly testing. Unvaccinated players continue to be tested daily, even if they report symptoms.
The new protocols raised questions about the possibility of undetected infections among players and coaches, which could lead to additional transmission in team facilities. The league's contact tracing system has not shown any evidence of it this season, according to Sills.
"We've not seen this phenomenon that people have discussed, which is people in the facility spreading a virus to other people," he said. When people have symptoms, that's when they seem to be spreading the disease to others. That's why we're asking people to come forward and acknowledge the symptoms, because that's the point at which they expose themselves to others.
Our data has been consistent throughout the season, and I think it's particularly true of the new variant with omicron. Symptom recognition and prompt testing are what it's all about.
Almost all of the players and coaches are vaccine free. More than 300 players have tested positive for steroids in the past two weeks, according to Field Yates.
The new protocols give vaccine players several options to test out sooner, based on a combination of negative tests and control threshold readings, beginning as quickly as the day after their original positive test.
