USC football, men’s water polo pause workouts after positive coronavirus tests


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USC football players practice last October. Workouts were halted this week due to positive coronavirus tests. (Daily Trojan file photo)

USC’s football and men’s water polo teams will halt their workouts until at least Monday after eight student-athletes between the two sports tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a Wednesday USC Athletics press release. 

Contact tracing suggests that the virus did not come from athletic activities but rather from off campus amid a recent increase of coronavirus cases in the USC community. Forty-three off-campus students have tested positive for the virus, in addition to three in on-campus housing.

“We have effective mitigation strategies in place,” Athletic Director Mike Bohn said, adding that workouts are being halted “out of an abundance of caution.”

All eight student-athletes who tested positive are currently isolated. Athletes in the two affected sports will be tested again this week.

All USC athletic workouts have been conducted outdoors and without contact, in accordance with Pac-12 and public health guidelines. Testing conducted between July 18 and Aug. 21 yielded one positive coronavirus case among 654 tests of student-athletes taking part in on-campus workouts as part of USC’s three-phase return-to-campus plan for football, soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s water polo and men’s and women’s basketball.

There had been no positive tests in the last three weeks prior to the Wednesday announcement.