Florida Gators COVID-19 Outbreak Leads to 25 Newly Reported Cases
Last Tuesday, the Florida Gators released their weekly COVID-19 testing data across the athletics department for the month of October. The update included five new cases across the football team, bumping the count up to six for the month. Hours later, football activities were paused due to an outbreak of coronavirus across the team.
When athletic director Scott Stricklin met with the media the next day, Wednesday, he shared that 21 football players had tested positive. Florida has released a new testing update with results through Monday, Oct. 19, which indicates a total of 25 positives since the last update.
That would mean Florida has added 10 new cases across the football team since Stricklin's press conference. Below, you can find the entire update with testing results across the entire athletic department, both for the month of October and the year-to-date since athletes returned on May 26th.
Since Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26
Total Tests on Campus: 4440
Total Positives on Campus: 144
Total Tests for October: 1699
Total Positives for October: 32
Since Football Student-Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26
Total Tests on Campus: 2,480
Total Positives on Campus: 62
Total Tests for October: 1107
Total Positives for October: 31
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Gators head coach Dan Mullen shared his confirmed positive diagnosis of coronavirus on Saturday evening, the third UF coach to have tested positive within the outbreak to be made known publicly. UF added one additional case across the entire athletic department this week, the first non-football case this month.
Florida's game against LSU, originally scheduled for Oct. 17, was postponed until Dec. 12, while the Missouri game was moved from Oct. 24 to Oct. 31. It's unknown how many UF players remain in quarantine, COVID-19 positive, or have non-COVID injuries keeping them out of action at this point.
The question has to be asked: Will the Gators end up hosting the Tigers on Halloween after all? Quarantining has slowed transmission of the virus within the program over the past week and with three weeks in between that and UF's last game at Texas A&M, Florida's recovery window is large.
However, nothing should be set in stone whatsoever in what's been such an unorthodox college football season.
