Renewed concern grips Cardinals as another player tests positive for COVID-19
Coronavirus has fully taken hold of the world, and definitely the United States, and isn’t going anywhere any time soon. This holds true for sports as well, and even our hometown teams are feeling the impacts. Sports are trying to re-start, but our Cardinals are already having to postpone games as players test positive.
In the past 48 hours, the team has flown together from Milwaukee to St. Louis, practiced together twice at Busch Stadium, and returned to their homes.
Members of the Cardinals’ traveling party have been testing every day.
They have been taking the saliva exams that are processed by MLB’s labs, and they have been getting results within 24 hours. Standard practice is to now respond with rapid tests to quickly get a handle on the new positive and where the virus might spread next.
The team needed to have two consecutive days of no new positives to leave their quarantine at a Milwaukee hotel. They received word that they had no new positives on Monday and Tuesday tests, as administered by MLB, and that allowed them to leave the hotel and Milwaukee on Wednesday morning.
The Cardinals had 13 members of their traveling party test positive for COVID-19 while they were on the most recent road trip. Of those 13, seven were players. Six chose to identify themselves: All-Stars Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong, relievers Junior Fernandez and Kodi Whitley, infielders Rangelo Ravelo and Edmundso. The Cardinals also placed pitcher Carlos Martinez on the injured list, though Martinez has, through his representative, twice declined to reveal the results of his test or nature of his injury.
Several of the players had mild symptoms of the virus, ranging from coughs to headaches and low-grade fevers. All of the players had seen improvement in their symptoms by Thursday, Shildt said. Some members of the support staff had more serious symptoms and were ill, the manager said. He added that no one had acute enough symptoms to be hospitalized.