Explaining the Coming Days for the Florida Gators; Determining Who's Available
What will the coming days look like for the Florida Gators?
That’s the prevailing question as the No. 10 Gators sit through their second bye week with close to 50 players in quarantine due to positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing, along with Head Coach Dan Mullen. The latter is staying to his side of the house, away from his wife and kids and in solitary isolation.
Mullen told reporters on Wednesday’s SEC Teleconference that all players who tested positive are exhibiting only mild symptoms. That is a blessing in itself, since this strain of the novel coronavirus affects people in so many different ways.
Knowing that those players are now in quarantine and are relatively safe and healthy, we move back to our original question.
What will the coming days look like for the Florida Gators?
This is an estimated timeline:
The initial outbreak was discovered the Sunday evening/early Monday morning following the Texas A&M game.
By that Monday, October 12, at noon, Florida began putting players into quarantine as tests returned showing positive results.
In weekly numbers released on Tuesday October 20, Florida revealed their total October numbers had risen to 31 positives. Dan Mullen told reporters on Wednesday that another positive has since come through. Payton Titus of “The Alligator” has reported that number is actually two.
The Gators LSU game was postponed to December 12. The Missouri game (originally scheduled for this weekend) was rescheduled for next Saturday, October 31.
When a player test positive, they must enter quarantine for 10 days. If they immediately return three negative test, the first test is considered a false positive, which we saw recently with Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban. If however, a second test is given and it returns positive, the first test is a confirmed positive. From there, a player can’t “test out” of quarantine early with three negative tests. They must serve the full 10 days of quarantine while also providing multiple negatives.
If a player is identified through contact tracing, they must stay in quarantine for 14 days. Their stay is longer because that is the CDC provided incubation period. In other words, it could take up to 14 days for a person who has been in contact to then test positive and exhibit symptoms.
This period of time is why the Missouri game was postponed.
For the sake of getting it out of the way, let’s assume the worst and say that the vast majority of players weren’t put into quarantine until last Wednesday, October 14. We’re assuming this because the numbers given initially were from those Monday tests (October 12) that identified the outbreak. The numbers given the following week (October 20) jumped by 10 players, but those could have been identified the Tuesday or Wednesday of that week.
That would mean they could test out by this Saturday, October 24. Those serving the 14-day quarantine can leave by next Wednesday, the 28th.
This is purely a rough estimation, but it hopefully provides some context to the dates in question. Those two new players who tested positive this week would not be out of quarantine in time.
This will provide a full week of practice for most of the players, but there will be one more significant hurdle. After exiting quarantine, players are required to go through a four-day re-acclimation period.
The rules in the SEC task force document read as follows:
“In addition to cardiac testing, a minimum of a 4-day period of re-acclimation to exercise will be required to monitor for any signs or symptoms of cardiac complications (i.e. chest pain, shortness of breath, presyncope, syncope). Day 1 of re-acclimation should be approximately 25% of a normal practice or conditioning session, with Day 2 being 50%, Day 3 being 75% and Day 4 being full participation. Prior to starting Day 1 of re-acclimation a medical evaluation, and EKG should be completed and deemed normal by the team physician. A troponin must be obtained on day 1 prior to exercise and results must be available prior to beginning day 2. An echocardiogram should be completed prior to final clearance for full participation.”
In the NFL, the Tennessee Titans proved a team can come straight out of quarantine with little to no live reps in practice and still win a game. This week will be a lot of mental reps for the Florida Gators, and require them to really determine what Mullen preaches as the most important part of the game; mental toughness.
ADDITIONAL NOTE:
GatorBait has identified at least four players NOT in quarantine: quarterbacks Kyle Trask and Emory Jones, receiver Kadarius Toney and defensive end Jeremiah Moon.
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