Isolated NBA Bubble Has Staggeringly-low COVID-19 Tests Results in One Week

The NBA teams and players have been in Orlando for one week to get ready for the league's restart to end its regular season and then begin the playoffs. Part of the league's protocol of having teams in the "bubble" at Disney World is to monitor the players on a daily basis, and to test them often for coronavirus, which led to their season's postponement.

On Monday, the NBA and its players association (NBPA) announced that of the 346 players tested in the last week, zero have tested positive for COVID-19.

"Of the 346 players tested for COVID-19 on the NBA campus since test results were last announced on July 13, zero have returned confirmed positive tests," the league and NBPA said in a joint statement.

"In the event that a player on the NBA campus returns a confirmed positive test in the future, he will be isolated until he is cleared for leaving isolation under the rules established by the NBA and the Players Association."

The NBA was the first major sports organization to shut down, or postpone, their season because of COVID-19. On March 11, after a player from the Utah Jazz tested positive for the spreading virus, the NBA stated it was postponing its season until further notice. Within a couple of weeks, a total of 14 NBA players tested positive.

Rudy Gobert, a center for the Utah Jazz, was that first NBA player to test positive for coronavirus. He said, "This is all about protecting yourself and the people around you. I wish I would have took this thing more seriously and I hope everyone else will do so because we can do it together."

The day after the NBA postponed its season, the NHL and Major League Baseball did the same. Also on March 12, after several college conferences canceled their conference basketball tournaments, the NCAA completely shut down all championships for both winter and spring sports—meaning no March Madness, College World Series or any spring sports.

Though some sports like NASCAR, MMA, WWE, golf and a few others have slowly begun restarting—even with little or no fans—the NBA's restart in Orlando is one of the major restarts. MLB will restart this Thursday with two night games, followed by a full slate of restarted "Opening Day" games on Friday.

The WNBA will tip off its season this weekend, with games played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

The NBA is scheduled to tip off its season, or its extended season, on July 30, and the NBA Finals will end no later than Oct. 13. The league will have 22 teams restarting the season, with eight games per team on a shortened schedule. Each team will have three scrimmage games to prepare for the season.

There will be no live fans for the season, and the playoffs are scheduled to begin Aug. 17. The conference finals begin September 15. The NBA Finals begin September 30.