Bubble holding after third round of testing with no new virus cases
Major League Soccer’s Disney World bubble appears to be firmly locked.
The league announced its third consecutive round of test results that returned zero new COVID-19 cases among players, coaches and staff competing in or supporting the MLS is Back Tournament.
The first round of test results registered one new positive case among FC Dallas and Nashville SC teams that were removed from the tournament field and remained isolated at the Swan and Dolphin Resort until it was safe for them to travel.
But the two most recent tests, including one round announced Saturday, featured no positive cases for anyone being housed at the MLS hotel — including any remaining FCD and Nashville players.
MLS announced Saturday night, of the 1,354 tests administered to 1,114 individuals Thursday and Friday at host hotel in Florida, zero returned positive COVID-19 results.
The league will continue to test its delegation frequently, with test results released every other day. If a player or staff member registers a positive result, league policy calls for that person to be isolated until follow-up tests confirm the result. The person is to be treated by a physician. Those directly exposed to the person who tested positive will be quarantined and subject to daily testing until they register multiple negative tests.
So far, one match was delayed due to a false positive test result and two teams were removed from the tournament after arriving in Florida with multiple COVID-19 cases detected among the delegation.
Florida reported 12,478 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, marking the fourth-highest daily increase in reported cases, according to the health department.
From Sunday to Sunday, the state posted a total of 80,236 cases, 740 deaths and 429,477 people tested — all of which break records for numbers of cases, deaths and tests reported in a single week.
Central Florida added 2,267 cases for a total of 2,267 on Sunday.