Maryland athletics suspends voluntary football workouts after positive COVID-19 cases

The University of Maryland athletics department has suspended all voluntary, individual football workouts after its first string of positive COVID-19 test results.

Between July 7-8, 185 student-athletes and staff were tested. Nine of the results came back positive, and those people are now in self-isolation per guidance from the Prince George’s County Health Department. The county is also conducting contact-tracing while all identified individuals undergo a 14-day self-observation period.

This is the second wave of data released by the university, but the first instance of coronavirus cases. As originally announced on June 26, all results came back negative from the 105 individuals who were tested in June. With 290 tests conduced in total, that’s a positive test rate of 3.1 percent.

The announcement of the positive tests comes two days after the Big Ten was the first major conference to cancel non-conference games across all fall sports.

Football players were first allowed to return to campus on June 8 to undergo pre-participation medical screenings as part of the first phase of the athletic department’s plan. They were able to begin the individual, voluntary workouts on June 15, and the date at which those will resume remains uncertain.