Another week of Notre Dame football test results yielded positives, but in low numbers.
Notre Dame had two players test positive between Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, the team announced Monday night, and are in 10-day isolation. Two others were identified as close contacts and placed into 14-day quarantine. None of them were at Saturday’s 47-40 win over Clemson. The team administered 258 tests in that span.
Notre Dame tests on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. The absence of those four players now in COVID-19 protocols means their test likely came earlier in the week. Those four are the only players in either isolation or quarantine.
This is the fourth straight week a player has tested positive, but no more than two cases have arisen in a week since Notre Dame resumed play Oct. 10. No more than two close contacts have been identified in a week, hinting at minimal potential for team spread due to the positive cases. Notre Dame has not had a virus-related game absence among players on its two-deep in any of the last four games.
It is not likely Sunday’s test results would have yielded any cases possibly transmitted during the postgame field storming. Head coach Brian Kelly is not concerned about potential consequences and spread among his players from the crowd on the field, though.
“My concerns are not great in terms of the post-game students on the field,” Kelly said Monday. “Those students were tested during the week, and our players were aware that they needed to get off the field in a timely fashion.
“We don’t believe that’s going to be a situation that is going to affect our football team, but we’ll have plans in place in case it becomes an issue.”
Notre Dame’s fall semester ends on Nov. 20. There are an estimated 221 active cases on campus, though each day has seen a decrease in daily new cases since 71 were reported on Nov. 4. The school’s dashboard shows six new cases from Sunday's 324 administered tests.
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