Pac-12 clarifies how 5 Oregon Ducks who had positive antigen tests for COVID-19

EUGENE — If Oregon’s football players who tested positive for COVID-19 via rapid antigen tests subsequently tested negative via more sensitive and accurate PCR tests, they may return to practice and play.

A Pac-12 spokesman clarified the process by which athletes can return to activity after a positive antigen test, which is then followed within 24 hours by a PCR test.

Oregon canceled its second scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday due to five positive antigen tests “within the program,” according to a UO athletics statement. The University of Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboard states all five are students, citing the athletic department.

UO athletics said all five were “asymptomatic, in isolation and being monitored by medical staff.” Ducks coach Mario Cristobal said the entire team was going to be tested again Sunday, per standard protocol, and the five individuals who tested positive would receive PCR tests to confirm the original results.

“If the PCR is negative, the player may resume the daily antigen test cadence and return to play,” a Pac-12 spokesman told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “If the PCR is positive, they will be a ‘confirmed positive’ and remain in isolation. This and all other protocols are subject and subordinate to any more restrictive local public health requirements.”

Lane County Public Health and Oregon Health Authority guidelines also deem a person who tests positive via an antigen test but negative via PCR as a net negative, according to an LCPH spokesman.

Cases confirmed as positive via PCR tests require individuals to isolate for a minimum of 10 days “or until all symptoms have resolved and then will enter a return to play progression,” the conference spokesman said. Additionally, cardiac tests can be conducted, including a cardiac MRI, and clearance from a team physician is necessary, per protocols outlined by the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative.

An athlete who is a confirmed positive does not need a negative PCR test before returning to practice and competition following isolation and the resolution of symptoms and clearance from a team physician, a Pac-12 spokesman said.

Contact tracing is coordinated locally with campus and public health officials.

“If someone has had a high-risk contact with an infected person (as determined through applicable contact tracing protocols), the individual will isolate for 14 days (if they become symptomatic, or test positive they will need to follow the isolation procedure),” according to a Pac-12 spokesman.

The Ducks are scheduled to open the 2020 football season Nov. 7 at home against Stanford.