Rangers COVID-19 Protocols Relaxed After Hitting Vaccine Threshold
ARLINGTON, Texas — Still amid a global pandemic, the Texas Rangers hit a significant milestone that will make their 2021 season a bit easier, or at least closer to normal.
Executive vice president and general manager Chris Young announced Monday that the Rangers have hit the 85 percent threshold for COVID-19 vaccinations and passed the required two-week waiting period.
Major League Baseball and the Players Association came to an agreement prior to the beginning of the season that once 85 percent of a club's Tier 1 individuals are considered "fully vaccinated", the club's health and safety protocols can be relaxed.
"We're excited to get there," Young said. "But the biggest takeaway from our standpoint first of which is that the virus is still very real. While some of the protocols are relaxed in certain areas, in other areas we have to remain very vigilant and make sure we continue to keep up our guard. Our club has done a tremendous job."
What do relaxed protocols look like?
- Vaccinated personnel are no longer required to wear masks in hotel rooms and other indoor spaces with other fully vaccinated individuals. They still must wear masks in the clubhouse and training room, but will not be mandated in the dugout, bullpen or weight room.
- Family and household members of vaccinated personnel, including non-vaccinated children, are now permitted to stay with them in their hotel rooms on the road. Players are also no longer required to notify their club's compliance officer when leaving the hotel.
- Vaccinated personnel now have the option to decrease COVID-19 testing to twice per week.
- Fully vaccinated individuals who have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 no longer need to quarantine unless they are showing symptoms.
- Fully vaccinated individuals can carpool or use services like Uber to and from club facilities.
- Card playing is permitted on planes and buses as long as no unvaccinated individuals sit within two rows of those who are fully vaccinated.
- Vaccinated personnel can meet outdoors with anyone instead of just household or family members.
- Vaccinated personnel are also permitted to appear at in-person marketing events, as long as the event’s health and safety protocols are approved by the club.
- Indoor religious services are also permitted, although outdoor services are still recommended.
- Family members and guests of players and staff are no longer required to sit in pods at games.
Baseball already feels closer to normal to the casual fan watching the games on television or sitting in the ballpark. But milestones like this allow the players and staff to feel a greater sense of normalcy.
It's no secret that the very odd and overly restrictive 2020 MLB season took its toll on the mental state of players throughout the league. Now that the Rangers have joined at least 12 other clubs that can feel a bit closer to normal again, it's just another step toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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