Iowa State announced Wednesday that a part-time student worker in the athletics department has tested positive for COVID-19, and that the protocols for dealing with a positive test are underway.
In this case, Iowa State said that an athletics staff member who worked with the person has been quarantined and further contact-tracing procedures are underway.
In a separate update within the same announcement, Iowa State also said that four student-athletes from different sports "have experienced symptoms after being in close contact with individuals outside of the athletics department who have been infected by the virus." Those four student-athletes have been quarantined as they await their test results.
With athletes from all sports starting to return to campus on June 1 and many football programs aiming for a June 8 start for voluntary activities, there is likely to be many more announcements like this from schools as they ramp up aggressive testing in these early stages of reopening. Identifying and quarantining those who test positive, aggressive contact-tracing procedures and more quarantine-style isolation for those in contact with infected individuals are going to become commonplace across college sports.
For Iowa State in particular, any staff or student-athlete with a positive test result will be restricted from the department facilities for 3-to-6 weeks. Anyone in close contact with an infected individual in the 48 hours leading up to their symptoms will be isolated for one week and undergo further testing.
"This certainly is not a great surprise. We believe our plan to isolate infected individuals, continually communicate and educate our student-athletes and staff on proper hygiene, ongoing efforts to thoroughly sanitize our facilities, and implement other strategies as necessary, will allow us to ultimately be successful in mitigating the impact of the virus," Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard said.
