NFL, NFLPA Announce 4 Players Tested Positive for COVID-19 from Aug. 21-29

The NFL and NFL Players Association announced four players and six members of team personnel tested positive for COVID-19 during the period of Aug. 21-29.

The announcement explained 58,621 tests were administered to 8,739 people. The handful of people who did test positive followed the league's protocols that call for immediate isolation and no access to team facilities or other members of the team.

Kevin Seifert of ESPN noted it is an uptick from the last round of testing conducted from Aug. 12-20 that revealed zero players and six team personnel members who tested positive. According to the report, the plan is to continue conducting daily testing through at least Sept. 5 while the league and the players association continue negotiating plans for regular-season testing.

On Aug. 24, Seifert reported all 77 people who were revealed to have tested positive at the BioReference lab in New Jersey were cleared as false positives.

The league retested the 77 positive samples in two different tests, and they all returned negative.

BioReference released a statement:

"On August 22, BioReference Laboratories reported an elevated number of positive COVID-19 PCR test results for NFL players and personnel at multiple clubs. The NFL immediately took necessary actions to ensure the safety of the players and personnel. Our investigation indicated that these were most likely false positive results, caused by an isolated contamination during test preparation in the New Jersey laboratory. Reagents, analyzers and staff were all ruled out as possible causes and subsequent testing has indicated that the issue has been resolved. All individuals impacted have been confirmed negative and informed."

Teams have been practicing at training camps with preseason games canceled in an effort to mitigate spread of the virus.

The regular season is scheduled to start on Sept. 10 with a game between the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.