Big Ten Releases Testing Measures Ahead of Fall Season
The Big Ten formally announced plans for football to return effective October 23 as the progress surrounding rapid testing helped move the needle in the decision-making. While the conference announced a formal plan for the return of practice and games, the Big Ten also implemented stringent measures to maintain testing standards moving forward.
Each Big Ten school will designate a Chief Infection Officer who will be tasked with collecting and reporting all testing data as the team test positivity rate and population positivity rate thresholds will be used to determine the continuation of practice and games. The Big Ten released thresholds for each measure:
- Team positivity rate (number of positive tests divided by total number of tests administered):
- Green 0-2%
- Orange 2-5%
- Red >5%
- Population positivity rate (number of positive individuals divided by total population at risk):
- Green 0-3.5%
- Orange 3.5-7.5%
- Red >7.5%
Decisions to alter or halt practice and competition will be based on the following scenarios:
- Green/Green and Green/Orange: Team continues with normal practice and competition.
- Orange/Orange and Orange/Red: Team must proceed with caution and enhance COVID-19 prevention (alter practice and meeting schedule, consider viability of continuing with scheduled competition).
- Red/Red: Team must stop regular practice and competition for a minimum of seven days and reassess metrics until improved.
“The data we are going to collect from testing and the cardiac registry will provide major contributions for all 14 Big Ten institutions as they study COVID-19 and attempt to mitigate the spread of the disease among wider communities,” the statement added. All COVID-19 positive student-athletes will be required to undergo cardiac testing and must receive clearance from a university-designated cardiologist for the “primary purpose of cardiac clearance for COVID-19 positive student-athletes with 21 days the earliest a student-athlete can return to competition.
Daily testing will begin on September 30, 2020.
