Quarantine issue presents a quandary
Proposed bigger roster, taxi squad might end need for isolation after AHL recall
Testing, roster size, taxi squads and a quarantine quandary.
The Vancouver Canucks were hoping for logistical clarity Wednesday when the NHL's board of governors conducted a conference call to assess progress toward the reported targets of opening 10day training camps Jan. 3 and a 56game regular season on Jan. 13. What they heard was expected. The enthusiasm to get the game back on the ice has to be tempered by tracking how a strong second novel coronavirus wave continues to impact the general populace and professional athletes. Testing of NHL players for COVID-19 will start Dec. 26, roster sizes are expected to expand by three to 26 and a four-player taxi squad will bump the overall player total to 30.
If there are no snags or surprises in the next week, confirmation of all logistics and division realignments by the NHL and the players' association could bring about a governors' vote a week before Christmas. It could be quite the gift for hockey-starved fans.
For the Canucks, the taxi-squad scenario is significant.
With the international border closed indefinitely and a mandated 14-day quarantine period for those entering Canada, recalling players from the AHL affiliate Utica Comets wouldn't make sense. Instead of being immediately inserted into the Canucks' roster because of injuries, or to provide a spark, they would have to be isolated.
A taxi squad would allow the club to keep its top-four projected recalls in Vancouver to train and practise, collect their AHL salaries and NHL benefits. Longer-term NHL prospects in Utica will play a season projected to start Feb. 5.
The quarantine issue might be the toughest sell to players and provincial health authorities.
Obviously, players want to remain abroad and celebrate Christmas with their families. Under normal requirements for returning to Vancouver, the quarantine time span would run well past camp commencement — even if they arrived here on Boxing Day. For the full run, they would have to be back by Dec. 20 and self-isolate.
However, another scenario could come into play. The Canucks are lobbying for a complete camp cohort group that would adhere to a strict home-rink-home edict. No outings. No mingling.
If players return to Vancouver before Jan. 1 and isolate, start camp Jan. 3 and abide by testing and safety protocols, they might convince health officials they're operating in a bubble and wouldn't present any problems to the general population. The biggest risk might be to those in Rogers Arena, not out of it.
“It would probably not be prudent,” said Dr. Brian Conway, president and medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre. “Current guidelines are that they quarantine. There are some shorter quarantines being looked at for asymptomatic individuals.
“If they test negative and remain asymptomatic for seven days, and they test negative again, the quarantine could end. But that's probably as short and as open as I would go.”
And that's where it gets interesting for Canadian clubs.
The Calgary International Airport started a rapid-test program for international arrivals on Nov. 2. It's designed to reduce quarantine time and the Flames are expected to use that program upon arrival. Edmonton International Airport started a saliva-sample test in September to produce a positive or negative test in less than a minute and that could pique the interest of returning Oilers.
Vancouver International Airport has partnered with West Jet for a domestic flight testing initiative.
However, a shorter path to reduce the 14-day quarantine mandate is not without its problems.
A woman who returned to Calgary from a recent business trip to the U.S. took the airport rapid test, and reportedly wound up spreading the virus to at least seven people. She isolated at the airport hotel until the first test result was reached. Sixty hours later she received a negative result and left the hotel to await the required second test conclusion. However, she started feeling ill in a few days.
Then the second test, which was received one week after her initial negative result, came back “indeterminate,” which requires immediate isolation and booking a followup test.
But the damage had been done. It's believed the virus spread as soon as the woman entered a sibling's home and infected the family.
The initial rapid-test result was considered a “false negative,” but Alberta Health clarified that the tests are only “a-point-in-time assessment,” meaning concluding whether the person is contagious in that moment because the virus has a 14-day incubation period. A person can be incubating the virus, test negative and then later become contagious.
Still, reducing the quarantine period from 14 to 10 and even seven days will command attention.
“After a single rapid test, they need to adopt enhanced public health measures,” Dr. Conway said. “They need to be tested again two days later, stay with health measures to the end of the week, be asymptomatic, then test again at seven days and be negative.
“Then they can return to the general populace. But you can't skip steps. A small negative test as a baseline is not enough. It's seven days by this model, but I'm more comfortable with 10 days, strict adherence to protocols and no symptoms.
“And if there are any outside contacts during that time period, it resets the clock.”
A small negative test as a baseline is not enough. It's seven days by this model, but I'm more comfortable with 10 days.