Penn State has tested 176 student-athletes for COVID-19 as of Wednesday with 0 positives
Penn State Athletics released its second round of testing results Wednesday afternoon. The Nittany Lions had no positive results among the 76 new tests as of July 10, with 31 tests still pending. In total, Penn State has so far tested 176 student-athletes.
The athletic department previously announced no positives among 102 tests after its initial round of testing. Those results were announced via conference call July 1 when Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said the department would follow a schedule for when it would release new results.
“We have been testing our student-athletes and staff upon their return,” Barbour told reporters. “As a university and an athletic department, we’ve decided that we’ll report those results every two weeks.”
The Nittany Lions’ results come after several universities have announced much higher positive test totals in recent weeks, including Clemson — which has 53 positives as of July 10 — and North Carolina — which has 37 announced positives as of July 8. Ohio State restarted its offseason workout program Tuesday after it shut it down last week based on positive tests.
Centre County reported nine new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the state Department of Health, which brings the county’s total to 262 since the first case was reported on March 20.
Penn State’s football program is in the second phase of its offseason workout program, which began Monday.
While programs are returning to campus and some are in the midst of workouts, the status of the fall sports season is still in doubt. The Big Ten announced a conference-only schedule for all fall sports last week. The conference has yet to lay out a definite schedule for any sport.
If the schedule remains the same, the Nittany Lion football will start its season against Northwestern on Sept. 26 in Beaver Stadium.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
