Florida Gators Football Reports One New COVID-19 Case
Ahead of week six, or week three of SEC action, however you prefer to look at it: The Florida Gators have reported just one new COVID-19 case among the football team and the entire athletics department since last week's update, with test results through Monday, Oct. 5th.
Below, you can find Florida's entire testing update since athletes began returning to campus on May 26th.
Since Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26th
Total Tests on Campus: 3,054
Total Positives on Campus: 113
Total Tests for October: 313
Total Positives for October: 1
Since Football Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26th
Total Tests on Campus: 1,451
Total Positives on Campus: 32
Total Tests for October: 178
Total Positives for October: 1
Last week, the Gators football team reported 0 positive tests for COVID-19, while reporting two across all athletics at the program. Over the course of the season, Florida has done its job in protecting its athletes and becoming one of the leading follow-by-example schools in the nation in handling this pandemic.
Of course, as the season moves forward, Florida will have to continue its social distancing policies, especially when more games are played at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in the coming weeks. When players returned to sports, an emphasis was placed on the team's ability to be responsible, and it appears as of right now, the Gators and head coach Dan Mullen are taking the coronavirus very seriously.
While Florida will report when an athlete does test positive, they, nor anyone else, will not be reporting who the athlete that tested positive is, for the sake of privacy.
That was made very clear yesterday when Mullen elaborated on his past comments on talking about injuries. While the Florida head coach backed off of his previous statement of never talking about injuries in general, he did indicate that he would only inform the public or the media in the event of a major injury as to not allow speculation considering COVID-19.
"Here is how I will handle this the rest of the year," Mullen began when speaking about injury updates in his opening statement.
"With the uniqueness of the situation, with COVID and everybody trying to find out, ‘okay, what's this guy got? What's going on with him? Is he COVID positive? He’s not.’ For the safety, security and the privacy of players, if someone does have an injury that will have them out for a significant amount of time I will certainly let you guys know on the injury front."
The Gators will have to hope they continue to act responsibly as an outbreak, of course, could cause a pause in action as we have already seen with Notre Dame in college football and the Tennessee Titans in the NFL.
