MLB News: COVID-19 Testing Numbers At a Season Low
MLB is already looking at entering a playoff bubble, and that’s probably the right move. The good news is that the latest COVID-19 testing numbers from around the league show that players continue to do a good job of staying healthy.
The latest MLB results show that there were 11,669 samples tested around baseball during this monitoring period. Of those tests, just 1 came back with a positive result for COVID-19. That 1 test was a staff member for a team, not a player. That comes out to just 0.009% new positives across the sport for this period.
Latest COVID-19 test results from MLB and the MLBPA… pic.twitter.com/lF1iy0zs9y
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 11, 2020
With the Cardinals’ and Marlins’ outbreak in the rearview mirror now, MLB has to feel like getting through the playoffs is really possible. Implementing the playoff bubble to further protect the players and the possibility to get through the season can only help.
In total, MLB has collected 115,337 samples during the monitoring phase of testing. The monitoring phase does not include intake testing from when players started showing up to Summer Camps. Those tests yielded a 0.07% positive rate throughout the course of the year, with most positives coming from St Louis and Miami.
Most experts had previously predicted that MLB could make it through the season if they could keep their rate below 10 percent. Obviously, they’ve been able to do that with relative ease. The biggest issue has been outbreaks with teams, not so much a league-wide issue. The main concern would be an outbreak during playoffs that would essentially knock a team out of October entirely.
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Ok. Players weren’t behaving in the beginning. Now they’re good boys? from what I’ve seen, not that good. That said I think they’re luckier than just good. I still see too many players too close together and not wearing masks. They’re back to high fiving and slapping each other on the butt. They must be washing their hands pretty well. I really hope it doesn’t get worse before the playoffs.
Please tell us, why is it the “right move” to institute a playoff bubble?