As families return to stands ahead of fans, health experts urge caution
The Ravens welcomed spectators to M&T Bank Stadium for the first time in eight months, as dozens of immediate family members sat behind the home sideline for the team’s 34-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on “Monday Night Football.”
It was a move made possible after the latest step in Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s reopening plan, which allows up to 250 people to congregate at outdoor venues.
And while public health experts called the Ravens’ decision to simulate admitting fans a wise step, they cautioned against moving too quickly, citing a possible resurgence of the coronavirus as the weather gets colder.
The NFL on Tuesday said the Tennessee Titans and Minnesota Vikings were suspending in-person activities after the Titans had three players test positive for the coronavirus, along with five other personnel. The league said Tuesday that both clubs are working closely with the NFL and the players’ union, including their infectious disease experts, on tracing contacts, more testing and monitoring developments.
On Monday, the family of players, coaches and other staff members sat spread apart across multiple rows with masks, eating concession food and cheering on the Ravens’ failed comeback effort as stadium personnel held purple signs that read “Mask Required” in white lettering.
In a statement released Friday, the Ravens said that admitting the family members was “to prepare for the possibility of hosting fans at M&T Bank Stadium later this season.” Family members admitted into Monday’s night game were required to live in the same household as a player, coach or staff member.
“I suspect those 250 people are probably pretty low-risk because they are probably people highly motivated to avoid COVID-19,” Dr. Larry Chang, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a phone interview. “So I think any slightly increased risk for bringing in 250 people is probably pretty modest.”
The team continues to hold ongoing discussions around increasing the number of fans attending games, but Baltimore City
and state officials did not give a timeline or any indication that the number of spectators allowed at M&T Bank Stadium will increase soon.
In response to questions about when the 250-person cap may be increased, James E. Bentley II, spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, said in a statement, “The Mayor is continuing to consult with the public health experts and making decisions guided by data, which the City continues to publish and update daily on its coronavirus dashboard at www.coronavirus.baltimorecity.gov.”
Mike Ricci, spokesman for Hogan, said in response to questions that there is “no timetable, per se.”
“It’s a combination of evaluating the progress we’re making on our health metrics, and discussions with local health officials and organizations,” Ricci said. “Another thing we’ll look at of course is contact tracing, and whether we see anything notable there. To get to this point, after we updated the order for entertainment venues in early September, we took a few weeks or so to look at the trends in our recovery metrics — particularly hospitalizations and positivity rates — and then brought sports venues into line.”
While case numbers and deaths in the state have dipped in recent months, Young has typically been slower to reopen Baltimore, compared to other jurisdictions in the state. The state’s health department on Monday reported a positivity rate of 1.88% in Baltimore. Maryland’s positivity rate is 2.58%.
“That is really dependent on what’s happening in your local community, in terms of how much COVID-19 is out there, how much transmission is happening,” Chang, whose expertise is in infectious diseases, said of bringing in a sizeable increase of fans. “I don’t think we’re quite there yet, in the city of Baltimore and kind of the region. And part of that is because we’re about to enter a really potentially difficult period where there’s a lot of conditions favoring coronavirus transmission and we’re just not sure what’s going to happen with this potential fall wave.
“Hopefully it won’t be too bad but there’s a lot of things in play which could cause it to have another wave. Hopefully we can avoid that. If we can keep the infection under control, if we can maybe get a vaccine not too far away, I think it’s certainly possible that we could have fans back watching Baltimore Ravens football games before the season is done.”
Maryland and global health experts have warned that the first coronavirus vaccine will not end the pandemic, and maskwearing and social distancing will still be required.
As NFL franchises remodeled their facilities and made preparations to play amid the coronavirus pandemic, the league left decisions on fan attendance up to each respective team, allowing every team to admit as many fans as their local and state health guidelines would permit.
Only three teams allowed fans into their stadiums at reduced capacities for Week 1, but that number increased to seven in Week 2. Across the league, tarps have been placed over the first couple of rows to separate fans from players and other personnel, and seats have been tied up to enforce social distancing.
Despite fears of these games serving as super-spreader events for COVID-19, and the report of a Chiefs fan testing positive after the team’s home opener in Week 1, there weren’t any outbreaks in NFL cities linked to games before this past Sunday.