All University of Michigan sports will be stopped for two weeks starting Sunday, January 24, according to an order from the state health department according to messages obtained by The Daily and confirmed by a source close to the sports department. The order, which disrupts all athletic activities, including practice, is limited to UM athletics only after a recent influx of positive cases into several Michigan teams.
A source told The Daily that there were five confirmed cases of the new variant COVID-19 B.1.1.7, with a further 15 presumed positives across the athletics department. The new strain was first introduced at the beginning of the semester by a UM athlete from the United Kingdom. All members of the sports department must be quarantined for 14 days.
Last week, 22 student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 per launch, 13 more than the previous week. No coach or team has tested positive.
As of Sunday morning, 87.2% of Michigan’s athletic competitions were played. Saturday, women’s basketball team rescheduled his game postponed against the state of Michigan for this week. The Wolverines had their own spurt in early December, after a match against Butler, in which a Bulldog tested positive the day after the game, leading to two lost games.
The men’s basketball team played in Friday in Purdue, even as a tested Boilermaker positive game day. The volleyball team had its first fight against Penn State this weekend postponed because of positive tests within the Penn State program.
Now, none of these teams will play in the next two weeks.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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