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MLB, MLBPA Announce 13 New Positive COVID-19 Diagnoses in Latest Testing Round
August 7, 2020
Major League Baseball is still dealing with a number of COVID-19 cases across the league as the season enters its third week.
Through Thursday, the league and players union conducted tests of more than 13,000 samples, with 13 returning new positive results. Among the confirmed cases, seven were players and six were staffers.
Since testing began on June 27, MLB has taken 57,578 samples with 141 cases discovered for a positivity rate of 0.2 percent, and 111 of the positive cases were found in players.
The Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies have suffered the worst outbreaks, with at least 16 Marlins personnel testing positive following its season-opening series in late July. That's forced a major overhaul of the schedule by MLB with 22 games total postponed as of Friday.
A series between the Chicago Cubs and Cardinals became the latest matchup impacted by positive tests. The Athletic's Mark Saxon reported 14 cases of COVID-19 in the St. Louis organization with eight players infected. Contact tracing is currently underway to determine if the series can be played at all this weekend.
Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreed to tighter restrictions of the health and safety guidelines on Wednesday. Teams will now have a compliance officer in charge of overseeing protocols within the clubhouse and on the road.
With the new guidelines in place, the next MLB testing results will mark another critical point in baseball's ability to keep its sport healthy for the remainder of the season.
