To increase the anxiety that currently affects the NBA amid an increase in COVID-19 cases, several players who tested positive for the coronavirus recently tested positive a second time, sources told ESPN.
The CDC defines “reinfection” as a person who contracts the infection, recovers and is infected again. Studies are underway on how long immunity can last, but the CDC says it expects some coronavirus reinfections.
The NBA has announced more than 100 positive tests since last summer, but the actual number since March is believed to be significantly higher. Several teams have more than 10 players who have tested positive at some point in the past nine months, sources told ESPN.
Since tests were less available and there were higher rates of false positives at the start of the pandemic, there is some uncertainty about how many players had true positive cases in early 2020, especially during the three-month league closure.
It is possible that some players who tested positive for the virus but were asymptomatic months ago were false positives. Some players have been tested for antibody levels to determine their level of immunity, but there is currently no comprehensive procedure for regularly testing these levels.
Team and league doctors evaluate each positive test and the player’s exposure on a case-by-case basis, because the nature of the virus is still uncertain, league officials said. For example, players who tested positive in the previous 90 days are sometimes treated differently from players who may have tested positive last summer due to how the virus may still appear on their systems.
The league office, the National Association of Basketball Players, teams and agents have been talking in recent days to consider changes to the protocol to limit the spread that caused the postponement of three games. The league has already placed players who already had the virus – Kevin Durant from Brooklyn and Bam Adebayo from Miami are two examples – in health and safety quarantines a week after exposure to an infected person due to concerns about reinfection or spread of the virus.
According to the current CDC guidance, the duration of immunity after a COVID-19 infection is not yet known. Some reinfections, based on knowledge of other coronaviruses, are expected, but are believed to be rare.
ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon contributed to this story.