Positive COVID test result announced at Penn State
Penn State announced Thursday that its first athlete had tested positive for COVID-19 since voluntary sports workouts began. The athlete was not identified.
Yet Nittany Lions linebacker Ellis Brooks didn’t sound very concerned. He couldn’t wait for the beginning of the Nittany Lions’ walk-through football practices Friday.
“Man, I’m super excited,” Brooks said. “This has been the longest I’ve been without football since high school. I know everybody is really looking forward to it.
“I know they’re working out the specifics and the details of everything, but I’m sure our athletic staff and our medical staff have a great plan for us to go in there and get some good work in.”
Brooks, a junior, spent the last two seasons as the No. 2 middle linebacker behind Jan Johnson.
He’s carrying great anticipation for the 2020 season, when he’s expected to battle Jesse Luketa, one of his roommates, for the job.
“I feel like I was very productive when I was on the field (the last two seasons),” Brooks said. “I got a chance to show what I can do.”
Starting Friday, Penn State and other college football teams will be able to have walk-throughs six hours a week, along with eight hours of weight training and conditioning and six hours of meetings.
That’s expected to lead to the start of Penn State’s preseason practice on Aug. 7, as long as the spread of the coronavirus remains relatively under control in Pennsylvania and Centre County.
As of Wednesday, Centre County has had 299 cases since March. The unidentified athlete’s case was the first one reported in the 16802 zip code for the University Park campus. It was not clear which sport the athlete plays or whether he or she was symptomatic.
Penn State athletes in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball have returned to campus.
Penn State issued its most recent COVID-19 update last week and said it had conducted 178 tests with no positive results and 31 pending.
“As part of the protocols established in the return to campus plan by the Penn State Athletics medical staff and in consultation with University, local and national officials and guidelines,” an athletic department statement read, “individuals with a positive test have been put into isolation for 14 days and will be retested at that point.
“In addition to isolation, contact tracing procedures have been implemented, which includes quarantine and testing for those individuals who might have been exposed, even if asymptomatic.”
Penn State’s athletic department will continue to report test results every other Wednesday. The next one is scheduled for July 29.
Brooks said he has faith in the protocols and precautions that Penn State officials have set up. Football players are wearing masks during their workouts, he said.
“It’s a great system in place,” he said. “It’s really not too much out of the way other than working out with a mask on. That’s probably the biggest change. Other than that, it really hasn’t been too crazy other than the way 2020 has been.”