In addition to the anxiety currently affecting the NBA amid an increase in COVID-19 cases, several players who previously tested positive for coronavirus tested positive for a second time, sources told ESPN.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines “reinfection” as a person who contracts an infection, recovers, and then becomes infected again. There are ongoing studies on how long immunity can last, but the CDC say they expect 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 tested positive at some point over the past nine months, sources said.
Because evidence was less available and there were higher rates of false positives at the beginning of the pandemic, there is some level of uncertainty regarding the number of players who had cases of true positives at the beginning of the pandemic. 2020, especially during the close of the three-month league.
It is possible that some players who tested positive for the virus but were asymptomatic months ago were false positives. Some players were tested for antibody levels to determine their level of immunity. But there is currently no league-wide procedure for periodic testing.
Team and league doctors evaluate each positive test and each player exposed 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 last 90 days are sometimes treated differently from players who may have tested positive last summer because of the way the virus could still appear in the system.
The league office, the National Basketball Players Association, teams and agents have been in talks in recent days to consider changes to the protocol to limit the spread that has led to the postponement of three games. The league has already placed players who previously had the virus (Kevin Durant of Brooklyn and Bam Adebayo of Miami are two examples) in health and safety quarantine a week after being exposed to a person infected with fear to a reinfection or spread of the virus.
According to current CDC guidance, the duration of immunity after a Covid-19 infection is not yet understood. Some reinfections are expected, based on knowledge of other coronaviruses, but are thought to be rare.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this story