ACC announces teams will forfeit games they can't play because of COVID outbreaks

I assume testing will occur very, very often and obviously anyone who tests positive will be quarantined. Where it gets trickier is when the next player over is within whatever the zone of contact is, but tests negative. There will be a lot of pressure to allow any player testing negative to play even if contact tracing as applied in 2020 would have lead to that player(s) sitting out. Last year some teams allegedly used contact tracing as a way to get out of games they did not want to play. Forfeiting a game completely changes that strategy.
 
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FSU isn’t close to the 85%. Apparently it was an issue at ACC media day, other teams/schools were concerned (per Bud Elliott).

Are we at 85%? I saw someone say yes in another thread, but did Manny confirm that?
I believe Manny said the team was at 85% but that was a few weeks ago. I'd assume the number is higher now.
 
Are they currently testing regularly? I would be interested to see what the current rates are in general and then if there have been any breakthroughs. I imagine they'll have a good idea of what to expect. And hopefully by the time the season is in full gear the case count drops again.
 
Are they currently testing regularly? I would be interested to see what the current rates are in general and then if there have been any breakthroughs. I imagine they'll have a good idea of what to expect. And hopefully by the time the season is in full gear the case count drops again.
My understanding is that if the team is over 85%, you are assumed to be good (unless you show symptoms or something).

If you are under 85%, you have to get tested.
 
I’m going to assume a fair share of the remaining 15% are guys who’ve actually had COVID, probably recently.
 
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Yeah. Let’s go through a season last season where we didn’t know anything about Covid and play out the season regardless. 1 year passes by and there’s a vaccine and now let’s go to an extreme measure.
 


No surprise there

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I’ll go out on a limb and predict not 1 ACC team will have to forfeit a game due to Covid this season
 
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The protocols are the story here. With breakthrough infections, you can still have people that are vaccinated testing positive, even if they show no symptoms. It’s a positive that most of the team is vaccinated, but it’s not a guarantee that people aren’t going to still be showing up positive.
 
While fully vaccinated individuals will no longer be required to participate in a surveillance testing regime under the latest revisions, testing must still be administered to unvaccinated student-athletes, coaches and sport support staff who have significant interaction with student-athletes, individuals designated in a team’s travel party and anyone else who is in regular close contact with student-athletes, as determined by the institution.

Unvaccinated individuals on a team with a vaccination rate less than 85 percent, must be tested a minimum of three times per week with a molecular (PCR) test. Unvaccinated individuals on a team with a vaccination rate at or greater than 85 percent, must be tested once per week. Additional testing of unvaccinated individuals is at the discretion of the institution.

Teams that have a vaccination rate of 85 percent or higher among their student-athletes, and have no active cases, may relax mitigation strategies around team activities (e.g., spacing/masking in meetings, at meals, while traveling). In all sports, the masking of any individual, vaccinated or unvaccinated, (student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, non-coaching personnel, officials) permitted in the team bench area or within the playing enclosure will be at the discretion of the home institution.

This is from the ACC website. So I take this to mean vaccinated players aren't going to be regularly tested, even if they are around someone who tested positive. It seems the only players at risk of missing games, or causing teams to forfeit, are the unvaccinated players or a player who willingly tests positive who has been vaccinated. I would imagine no vaccinated player is going to get a test unless they have serious symptoms.

I could be misunderstanding that. It doesn't explicitly say what the protocol should be for contact tracing on vaccinated players.
 
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