New York (AFP)
Two Los Angeles Lakers players infected with the new coronavirus on Thursday, three of the Philadelphia Sixers, one of the Boston Celtics and a member of the Denver Nuggets: cases are multiplying in the NBA, stopped for more than a week due to the pandemic.
The Lakers of star LeBron James, leaders of the Western conference before the interruption of the regular season, had their players tested because they faced on March 10 the Brooklyn Nets team, including four players who tested positive on Tuesday. In total, almost fifteen cases have been declared in the NBA, since the first proven contamination, that of the French pivot of the Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert, on March 11, which led to the suspension of the championship.
"The two players are asymptomatic, quarantined and under medical surveillance for the time being," Lakers spokesperson Alison Bogli said in a press release where the identity of the two players is not known. revealed.
"All players and managers of the Lakers are instructed to stay in quarantine at home, closely monitor their health, consult their personal doctors and stay in constant contact with the team," he added. -she.
The Sixers also did not reveal the identities of the three contaminated players. They are in quarantine and followed by doctors, the team said.
Boston Celtics' back Marcus Smart revealed to him on Thursday that he had been infected, just after his franchise announced that at least one of his players had tested positive.
"I just learned that I tested positive for coronavirus. I'm fine, I have no symptoms," Smart said in a video posted to his Twitter account.
The Denver Nuggets, for their part, did not specify whether the person tested positive was a player or a member of management.
NBA boss Adam Silver said on Wednesday that NBA players should be considered "super-spreaders" of the disease and were therefore likely to infect a large number of people, in response to criticism of the tests carried out in emergency by the teams when the vast majority of Americans have to wait a long time to get there.
Part of China at the end of 2019, the pandemic of new coronavirus infected more than 13,600 people and left 200 dead in the United States, according to the latest projections from Johns Hopkins University.
© 2020 AFP