The University of Vermont men's basketball team is not practicing this week after two people associated with the school's basketball programs tested positive for COVID-19.

The university announced the cases in an online statement Tuesday afternoon.

[image-2] The statement does not specify whether the cases involve players or when the positive tests were received, and director of athletics Jeff Schulman declined to comment beyond it.

Only one of the cases is considered "active," according to UVM Athletics. Both individuals who tested positive were asymptomatic and were quarantining. Pending further tests, the men's basketball team won't resume training until next week.

"Individuals who had close contact have been notified and are quarantining per current public health guidelines," the release states.

The men's and women's basketball teams are the only athletics programs at UVM currently permitted to practice. They began training on July 20 after all players met state-mandated quarantine requirements, according to the release.

Since then, the university has conducted 75 tests of players, coaches and staff, which apparently detected the two positive cases.


Last week, Seven Days received a tip that the men's basketball team had ceased practicing because of positive COVID-19 tests. On July 30, Schulman said in an emailed statement that the "brief pause" was due to "an inconclusive test that occurred out of state which has since been resolved." Players were scheduled to return to "small group, socially distant, non-contact training" the following day, July 31.

Schulman had not responded to follow-up questions and an interview request sent last Thursday, Friday and Monday by the time Tuesday's update went out.

COVID-19 testing is a key piece of UVM's reopening strategy this fall. Last Friday, the university announced that it plans to test all students before and upon their arrival to campus, and weekly thereafter through September 18.

The university discloses "weekly net new positive COVID-19 cases" on its website. The most recent weekly update from July 30 shows no new cases. An earlier July 23 update listed two student cases and one staff case.

UVM Athletics said the basketball programs are following NCAA Resocialization of Sport protocols, which require daily symptom monitoring, regular COVID-19 testing and a phased return to training.