The National Football League found that COVID-19 transmission occurred after less than 15 minutes of cumulative contact among players and staff, according to a joint report from NFL's medical leaders and the CDC.
The NFL implemented strict protocols for contact-tracing and testing, allowing the league to complete its 256-game regular season over the standard 17-week period, reports The Washington Post.
The league identified 189 NFL players and staff members as high-risk contacts of 215 people who tested positive for the virus between Oct. 15 and Nov. 21. Of these individuals, 20 tested positive, and no additional spread occured.
While the NFL's COVID-19 protocols are costly and resource-intensive, the NFL's system offers public health lessons that are applicable to other settings, including the benefits of defining specific characteristics of close contact, the CDC said.
"I think we learned and reported … that all close contacts are not created equal," Allen Sills, MD, the NFL's CMO, told the Post. "There are some contacts that convey a much higher risk, and circumstances really matter. And so we've been able to evolve our understanding away from simple basics of 6 feet and 15 minutes, which is maybe where we all started back in the early days of the pandemic. I think another important takeaway is that we learned that high-risk close contacts are avoidable."
Click here to view the full report.
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