NBA Issues Health and Safety Protocols Ahead of 2020-21 Season

As the NBA prepares to begin another season, the league started its daily coronavirus testing in preparation for training camps to begin next week. Each league team received a 134-page Health and Safety Protocol Guide on Saturday for the 2020-21 season, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

With the NBA starting the new season outside of a bubble, the health and safety protocols require that if someone tests positive for COVID-19, there are two paths to returning. The person either has to go at least 10 days since the initial positive test or symptom onset, or they have to receive two negative PCR test results at least 24 hours apart, ESPN's Tim Bontemps reports.

Any player who tests positive will not be allowed to exercise for a minimum of 10 days. The player must then be monitored in isolated individual workouts for two more. If a player is asymptomatic, the minimum number of days they would miss is 12.

If their are circumstances calling for games to be canceled, the league says occurrence of independent cases—cases that are not spread among players, team staff or a small or otherwise expected number of COVID-19 cases—will not require a decision to suspend or cancel the 2020-21 season, Bontemps reports.

There is no criteria listed by the NBA for what might cause the league to suspend the season. Each team’s traveling party for the season will be limited to 45 people, including up to 17 players, according to ESPN's Malika Andrews.

The number of players allowed in the traveling party for the upcoming season is slightly larger than what was allowed for teams playing in the NBA Bubble. Teams must register their initial traveling parties by Dec. 10.

The NBA will start its preseason games on Dec. 11 and will begin the NBA season on Dec. 22. The season is expected to run through late July.