All Clear for Now on COVID-19 Front

Barring another outbreak, the Bears are finally free of COVID-19 as they prepare to play the Minnesota Vikings

It's been a long time coming.

On Nov. 26 the Bears put Elijah Wilkinson on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the 11th time someone had gone on it all year. He was on it until Dec. 17 and in the meantime December became a veritable COVID-19 nightmare for the Bears with an outbreak that saw as many as 14 players out at one time, as well as three coordinators.

On Monday, the Bears removed their last two players from the COVID-19 list when linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe and tight end Jesper Horsted were reinstated to the 53-man roster.

On Tuesday, they waived defensive back Dee Virgin from the practice squad, one of the players they had signed when they were hit so bad by the illness just before their last game with Minnesota. It was an outbreak so bad they had no starting players left in their secondary.

So when they face the Vikings on Sunday in the regular-season finale, it will be a completely different type of roster available than earlier, when they used practice squad cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. for the first time. In that game, they started Teez Tabor and Deon Bush at safety and also started benched cornerback Kindle Vildor along with Graham. They had safety Marqui Christian playing nickel cornerback. DeAndre Houston Carson had broken his arm, Xavier Crawford had a concussion and Artie Burns had gone on the COVID-19 list along with safeties Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson and cornerback Jaylon Johnson.

Virgin, Michael Joseph and BoPete Keyes all wound up playing in that game, a virtual who's who of the practice squad or waiver wire.

Yet Minnesota's Kirk Cousins managed only 87 yards passing on 12 of 24 with an interception and 61 net passing yards due to four sacks for 26 yards.

It was the best day of the season for the Bears on pass defense as they held Justin Jefferson to four receptions for 47 yards in the process.

In the end, they lost 17-9 and the game wasn't as close as the score indicated. They scored their only touchdown on a last-second throw to Horsted.

Not long after, Horsted was on the COVID list, as well. And now he's off along with everyone else.

In a twist, it's the Vikings with seven players on the list at the moment, although they had a few on it the first game, as well. Cousins missed Sunday's loss to Green Bay on the COVID-19 list.

Others on it are starting guard Ezra Cleveland, starting tackle Christian Darrisaw, starting linebacker Eric Kendricks, tackle Brian O'Neill, tight end Chris Herndon and safety Camryn BynumKK

Twitter: Bear Digest@BearsOnMaven