The Falcons were not affected by the COVID-19 testing issue the came out of testing facility in New Jersey and altered several NFL teams practice plans on Sunday.
The Falcons send their tests to a lab in Florida, while the issues were with a New Jersey lab.
“Saturday’s daily COVID testing returned several positives tests from each of the clubs serviced by the same laboratory in New Jersey,” NFL wrote in a statement. “We are working with our testing partner, BioReference, to investigate these results, while the clubs work to confirm or rule out the positive tests.
“Clubs are taking immediate precautionary measures as outlined in the NFL-NFLPA’s health and safety protocols to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals and temporarily adjusting the schedule, where appropriate. The other laboratories used for NFL testing have not had similar results.”
On the ramp up to training camp, the Falcons had seven players placed on the leagues’ reserve/COVID-19 list. All have since been activated.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn is keeping an eye on the situation.
“I think what we’re talking about is having contingency plans because one thing that we’ve known through the spring and now even into training camp that things are fluid and they change,” Quinn said. “Having discussions about things that could come up, you can respond to them as opposed to just react. ‘Hey, this is something that we thought and we could handle it,’ that’s been the case for us since July 21.”
The Vikings, Jets, Steelers, Browns, Packers and Bears are the known teams affected.
“Policies changed, some things have moved around, were we going to go onto everyday testing or not?,” Quinn said. “Those kinds of things are good things to discuss. I know there has been a lot of time to make sure that we can play all the way through. I think, like most things, you throw ideas out and see what sticks and what could work. When more people are making suggestions, that’s when some of the good ideas come.”
The Browns also issued a statement:
"After consistently receiving encouraging results from daily testing since returning to the facility in July, the Cleveland Browns' COVID-19 testing process conducted yesterday initially indicates multiple individual presumptive positive cases that include players, coaches and support staff. Although, we have received indication from the NFL that they are investigating irregularities in lab results that have also impacted other clubs, out of an abundance of caution, we will immediately follow our comprehensive Infectious Disease Emergency Response plan and pause any activity in our building today and conduct meetings virtually. As per plan procedure, the team is also diligently reviewing proximity data for contact tracing and instructed self-isolation for those who tested positive and others as appropriate even though they all remain asymptomatic. Our facility is currently undergoing a thorough deep-cleaning and disinfecting process and is closed to all personnel for the day. We will provide updates as testing results are confirmed and more information is available."
The Bears, after determining the test were false positives, moved their practice back to later in the day.
“This morning we learned yesterday’s Covid-19 testing identified nine players/staff as positive,” the Bears said in a statement. “We followed additional NFL-NFLPA testing protocol and confirmed all nine results as false positives. Out of an abundance of caution, we postponed this morning’s practice to this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.”
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