Ole Miss football currently with just one active case of COVID

An Ole Miss player ecently undergoes a medical examination by the program's training staff. (Photo: OMA)
There is only one active case of the COVID-19 virus currently within the Ole Miss football program.

Shannon Singletary, senior associate athletic director for health and sports performance, confirmed that number to the Ole Miss Spirit on Wednesday. In fact, of the nearly 300 student-athletes spread across all fall and spring sports who have returned to campus at this time, there is currently a total of only five active COVID cases, including the one within the football program.

Ole Miss returned to campus approximately 150 student-athletes on June 1. That number increased to a little over 200 within a week and continued to grow to the current estimate of 300.

"From June 1, to about June 20...that two-and-a-half week period or so...we had about 10-11 percent of our athletes contract it after they got here to Oxford," Singletary related. "We tested everybody when they got here."

Only one student athlete tested positive for COVID-19 upon the initial wave of arrivals.

"We got up pretty quickly when they got here to about 17 or 18 active cases (across all sports), and we got up to about 35 people in quarantine. Many of those were considered close contacts, or they were actually isolated themselves," said Singletary.

Those 35 student-athletes were held out of practices and workouts for a period of 14 days, as part of the quarantine regime.

"That was based on the fact that they were an active case, they were positive or they were a close contact," said Singletary.

What followed after the initial outbreak was what Singletary describes as "a very steep decline."

"And for the past two-and-a-half, almost three weeks now, we've been working only about five cases (at any time). Right now, as of today, we only have five cases.," Singletary shared.

"Right now, literally, we only have one football active case."

Singletary attributes some of the university's success in battling the COVID-19 outbreak to the aggressive approach that has been taken.

"We said from the get-go, we were going to be very aggressive in our identifying athletes, stopping people at the door the first time they come into the building, checking their temperatures and asking good questions and staying in touch with them to identify symptoms and then immediately testing them," he explained, adding that his team is also taking an aggressive approach to trace contacts when dealing with symptomatic student-athletes.

Since June 1, Ole Miss has had a total of 93 student-athletes quarantined since June 1. The number of positive cases stands at 35.

"These are student-athletes who were quarantined due to either being a positive case or because they were a close contact," aid Singletary.

Singletary pointed out that all of the 35 positive cases were not from student-athletes currently on campus. Some remain at their homes or are playing in summer sports leagues elsewhere.

"That's 35 total from the 18 sports at the university since June 1," he continued. "I would say from that number seven of them are not even here in Oxford."


SOURCE: Johnson, David. "Ole Miss football currently with just one active case of COVID." 22 July 2020, OMSpirit - 247Sports.com, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Ole-Miss-football-currently-with-just-one-active-case-of-COVID-149426497/