Two Cubs staff members test positive for COVID-19, are delayed in joining camp

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Two Cubs staff members tested positive for COVID-19 and are expected to miss the beginning of camp, Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer announced Monday.

No players have yet tested positive.

Both staff members who tested positive are considered Tier 1 individuals, Hoyer said. According to the 2020 Operations Manual, Tier 1 can include coaches, team physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists and strength and conditioning coaches.

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The two positive tests were administered at home, not during the intake process, according to Hoyer. One staff member took the test because of contact with someone who tested positive. The other took the test, “out of an abundance of caution,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer described both staff members’ symptoms as “mild.”

The Cubs began intake screening on Saturday, but Hoyer said he has not heard the results of the first wave of intake tests. Most players are scheduled to travel to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday go through intake screening – which includes both diagnostic and antibody COVID-19 tests.

Cubs manager David Ross said he went through intake screening on Monday.

Back in February, Ross missed the Cubs' first three Spring Training games with flu-like symptoms. After reports of COVID-19 in the United States began circulating, Ross said he wondered if he’d had one of the earlier cases of the novel coronavirus.

Ross's COVID-19 antibody test, he said, came back negative. The immune system produces antibodies when fighting a virus, so a negative antibody test would suggest that Ross has not had COVID-19. The tests are not 100 percent accurate, so it is possible to receive a false positive result.

“I tested positive for Influenza A at the emergency room,” Ross said, “so, doc assures me that it would be very rare for me to have had COVID.”

 

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