Karl-Anthony Towns Donates $100K to Mayo Clinic Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns announced Sunday that he's donating $100,000 to the Mayo Clinic to assist in getting more tests for the coronavirus to the public:
Christopher Snowbeck of the Minnesota Star Tribune reported Thursday that the Mayo Clinic lab in Rochester "started making tests available to health care providers at Mayo on Thursday and will open the supply to others in the coming days. Mayo's initial capacity of 200 to 300 tests per day is expected to grow in the coming weeks."
The Mayo Clinic said in the press release for Town's donation that its plan is to increase the production of COVID-19 tests to 1,000 per day in the near future.
"Trying to develop a test in a span of weeks is difficult," Matthew Binnicker, the director of the clinical virology lab at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, told Snowbeck. "We've been working diligently, around the clock."
The NBA is currently on a 30-day hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. To this point, three NBA players—Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz and Christian Wood of the Detroit Pistons—have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Other leagues around the world have taken similar actions and suspended play, including the NHL, PGA Tour and the major European soccer leagues. The NCAA also canceled the March Madness tournaments this year.
To date, there are over 152,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus around the globe, with 5,720 deaths.
