Florida Reports 15% Positive Coronavirus Test Rate As NBA, MLS, WNBA Set To Arrive

The state of Florida reported 6,563 new coronavirus cases Wednesday morning, with the positive rate up over 15%. This news comes as the NBA and MLS are set to arrive in Orlando to play matches at Disney World this month. The WNBA will report to the IMG Academy in Bradenton.

The ESPN Wide World of Sports, where the NBA and MLS will both resume play this season in their respective bubbles, and Disney resides in Orange and Osceola Counties. In Osceola, the positive test rate reported on Wednesday was 18.2%, more than twice as high as the 7% national average according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, heightening our previous concerns about sports in Florida.

As MLS begins its tournament on July 8, The Athletic is reporting that six players from FC Dallas tested positive just eight days before it’s set to play its first game. Though no other players in the bubble reported positive tests, which means the plans of isolation seem to be working right now, it underscores how COVID-19 can spread rapidly through a group and how games between two teams need to be vigorously monitored. Four teams, Chicago Fire, Inter Miami, New York Red Bulls and Nashville SC are all slated to arrive in Orlando on Wednesday.

The news in Florida and the Orlando area comes as 22 NBA teams get set to report to Disney next week following the July 4 holiday. It comes on the heels of news out of Brooklyn, where Nets stars Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan both tested positive for coronavirus in New York after four players, including Kevin Durant, tested positive back in March. Jordan said he’s opting out of the NBA’s restart, scheduled to begin July 30, while Dinwiddie said he’s still unsure of his status despite currently showing symptoms.

In an interview with Time on Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that a “significant spread” of the virus could cause the cancellation of the Orlando restart but wouldn’t specify what that actually meant.

“Certainly, if we have a lot of cases, we’re going to stop,” Silver said. “You cannot run from this virus. I am absolutely convinced that it will be safer on this campus than off this campus, because there aren’t many other situations I’m aware of where there’s mass testing of asymptomatic employees.”

The NBA will test players every day and use devices like the Oura smart ring to try and prevent the type of community spread that took place with FC Dallas, but if the bubbles for the NBA, MLS and WNBA aren’t tight enough and the positive test rate in Florida remains nearly three times the national average, we may see the experiment in the Sunshine State go horribly wrong.