BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo Athletics Department is reporting its first outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
University at Buffalo Athletics Director, Mark Alnutt, says that 25 student athletes on UB’s women’s volleyball, women’s soccer and football teams have tested positive for COVID-19.
“We have had very low incidence of COVID-19 since we began testing our student-athletes in June,” Alnutt said in a press release. “Per our health and safety protocols, we took immediate steps to curb the spread of the virus among our student-athletes and athletics staff.”
The discovery of the new cases resulted from testing 322 student-athletes last week after one student-athlete reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The results of the tests indicated that 19 football players, five women’s volleyball players and one women’s soccer player had tested positive.
Alnutt said that per UB Athletics protocol, all team activities in the three sports were immediately paused with the hope they will resume October 5, after the health status of each team is evaluated.
“Our athletic training staff, coaches and student-athletes have done an excellent job of preventing and containing the spread of the virus over the past four months,” Alnutt said. “With the rigorous health protocols we have in place, and with the dedicated commitment of our student-athletes and athletics staff, we will continue to protect our student-athletes, the UB campus community and the community at large.”
Next week, UB Athletics will begin implementing new health protocols developed by the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Medical Advisory Group for football programs.
The MAC made the announcement last week that they reverse course and have decide to play college football this fall where they indicated the first games would be November 4.
According to the MAC plan, student-athletes will begin on-campus antigen testing on October 5 and will be tested four times per week. In addition, the plan includes well-defined reclamation protocol for student-athletes who test positive as it pertains to cardiac screening.