Six Yale players test positive for COVID-19; school pauses athletic activity at least week

Six Yale student-athletes tested positive for COVID19, the school said in a statement Tuesday. All six play for the men’s hockey team, according to the school’s student-run newspaper, The Yale Daily News.

“These cases were identified through our twiceweekly screening program, and the university’s testing and tracing team acted quickly upon receiving the positive test results, isolating the infected individuals and initiating contact tracing to identify and quarantine their close contacts,” Yale’s COVID-19 coordinator Stephanie S. Spangler wrote in a statement.

The six athletes and the athletic staff that work with them are self-isolating. The school conducted contact tracing to determine which of their close contacts will need to quarantine.

All varsity athletic teams and intramural sports will pause in-person training activities for “at least” the coming week, the statement said. Payne Whitney Gymnasium, Ingalls Rink, and the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center will be closed for cleaning until Monday.

Yale athletics moved into Phase II of the Ivy League’s three-phase plan for training and practice last Thursday. Phase II allows teams to weight-train, condition and engage in sport-specific practice for a maximum of two hours per day.

The Yale Daily News reported that the school will revert back to Phase 0 for sports until Oct. 21, which prohibits all in-person athletic activities. Virtual meetings are allowed.

According to the school’s testing data, 26 students and 11 faculty members had tested positive for COVID-19 from Aug. 1 to Oct. 11. From Oct. 5 to Oct. 11, the school tested 4,998 individuals, and only six tested positive.