As Syracuse football and its ACC counterparts prepare to play games in the near future, the league ramps up its COVID-19 testing.
In roughly two weeks’ time, Syracuse football is expected to travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., for an Atlantic Coast Conference battle on Saturday, Sept. 12 with North Carolina, a crew that is getting high praise from national pundits and checked in at No. 18 in the pre-season AP top-25 poll.
UNC officials have announced that, during this contest between the Tar Heels and the Orange, no fans will watch in-person amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
What’s more, ahead of the 2020 football stanza commencing, ACC leaders have wisely elected to boost COVID-19 testing in this sport, as well as in field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball, according to a press statement released Friday by the conference.
The ACC’s medical advisory group (“MAG”), whose participants include SU associate athletics director for sports medicine Brad Pike, now calls for players in football and those other sports to get tested three times every week, starting with the week of the first competition scheduled for this fall.
"More from the league’s announcement. “One molecular (PCR) test must be administered within three days of the day of competition. In football, one test must be performed the day before competition and another within 48 hours of the conclusion of the game. The test administered the day before competition will be conducted by a third party, selected by the ACC Office.”"
Syracuse football players, thankfully, will get tested for COVID-19 three times every week, once official competition is underway.
It’s encouraging to see that student-athletes for Syracuse football and other fall sports will get tested with more frequency. I don’t proclaim to reside in the medical field as my profession, however, my sense is that all along the plan should have proven for players in these falls sports to receive COVID-19 testing multiple times per week.
Once a week, as a MAG report disclosed about a month ago recommended, simply isn’t sufficient. An updated report from MAG also says that any student-athlete who tests positive for COVID-19 “will undergo a cardiac evaluation that includes an electrocardiogram, a troponin test and an echocardiogram before a phased return to exercise.”
Separately, ACC leaders say that they have adjusted their protocols to “eliminate all non-essential personnel from the sidelines and team auxiliary areas.” People who are determined as essential to have access to the sidelines will have to meet various standards agreed upon by the conference’s 15 members, such as a temperature screening, symptom checks, social distancing, and universal mask-wearing.