Yahoo Sports Miami Heat latest to shut down practice facility after positive coronavirus cases
The Miami Heat shut down their practice facility on Friday after a second player on the team tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang.
The team will now not practice together again until it arrives at Walt Disney World for the league’s restart on Wednesday.
Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr., per the Herald, was the first player on the team to test positive for the coronavirus last week. The second player did not identify themself, however he is reportedly in quarantine. According to the Herald, he is still expected to participate with the team when play resumes.
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The practice facility will remain open only to continue testing for players and staff members.
Heat join others in shutting down
The Heat are just the latest team in the league to close their facility due to positive coronavirus tests. The Los Angeles Clippers shut theirs down on Thursday after a positive test within the organization — the person is part of the team’s travel plans for the league’s restart in Florida, though it’s not clear who — and the Denver Nuggets closed theirs on Tuesday due to a positive test, too.
The NBA announced on Thursday that there were nine new positive cases among players, and had announced 16 positive tests last week. The second Heat player is believed to be the 26th new confirmed case among players since the league-organized testing began on June 23.
The NBA is set to resume play on July 30 with the 22 teams who were invited to the restart despite the coronavirus pandemic still raging throughout the United States.
There were more than 2.7 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as of Friday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and nearly 130,000 deaths attributed to it. The United States recorded more than 55,500 new cases on Thursday alone, too, a new single-day record since the pandemic began.
Cases are surging in Florida as well. There were more than 178,500 cases as of Friday afternoon, more than 10,000 of which were reported on Thursday alone — a single-day record for the state. Orange County, where Disney World is, had more than 12,000 confirmed cases. Miami-Dade county had more than 42,000 cases, by far the most in the state.
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