COVID-19 False Positives Impacting Penn State

Penn State coach James Franklin isn't sure why his program has sustained a large number of false-positive tests for COVID-19.

Penn State's James Franklin said his program has generated 44 false-positive tests for COVID-19 this season, a number that has confused the coach and affected the team's ability to practice.

Franklin addressed the testing issue multiple times this week, the latest on Thursday's edition of the Penn State Coaches Show. Franklin said that another person in the program missed practice Thursday because of a false-positive result.

Defensive coordinator Brent Pry missed practice because of a false-positive, and cornerbacks coach Terry Smith missed two practices because of the testing issue. According to Franklin, Penn State's rate of false-positives results is an outlier in the Big Ten.

"We're at, I think, a higher rate than anybody in the conference and trying to find out why," Franklin said.

Per Big Ten rules, football players, coaches and staff members undergo a daily rapid antigen test, administered by an outside service, prior to practices and games. Those who return a positive result then are required to undergo a confirmatory PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) test. They are quarantined and cannot practice or coach until the PCR test returns a negative result.

According to the Big Ten, a percentage of anonymous samples from negative tests undergo further validity testing to ensure that the rapid antigen tests "are performing in accordance with expectations."

Penn State has not announced any specific positive cases of COVID-19 among football players or staff. In its most recent COVID-19 testing release, Penn State reported six positive cases in athletes among 1,558 tests administered from Nov. 6-13.

Penn State does not release the specific teams affected by positive tests, but Franklin said, "knock on wood and thank God we're not having the COVID positives."

After the Indiana game, Franklin said that one player missed the opener because of a false-positive result. The coach said Tuesday that several players and staff members have returned false-positive results multiple times.

When that happens, players cannot practice, and graduate assistant or analysts have to fill in for missing coaches at practice.

"We can’t seem to get a whole lot of feedback and support to get answers to it," Franklin said. "For about a month we’ve been trying to figure out why we’re having so many."

Penn State is scheduled to host Iowa on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.

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