Five SMU Student Athletes Test Positive For COVID-19
Five SMU student athletes across multiple sports tested positive for COVID-19 after voluntarily reporting to campus for off-season workouts, the university shared this week.
Two exhibited symptoms and three were asymptomatic, according to a post on the school’s website. One student lived on campus in Morrison-McGinnis and all five are self-isolating.
SMU Athletics reported they tested all 75 student-athletes across multiple sports who voluntarily returned to campus this week for off-season workouts as part of its Healthy Return Plan. Of those 75, five tested positive for COVID-19.
The announcement comes shortly after the Dallas Morning News reported the university was requiring student athletes to sign a liability waiver before returning to campus for workouts.
[The document] acknowledges obviously that we’re co-existing with a pandemic, just to be clear that, No. 1, all of our student-athletes know that there’s risk associated with returning to campus at this time and participating in voluntary workouts,” SMU athletic director Rick Hart told the Dallas Morning News. “And then No. 2, making sure that they clearly understand, if for any reason they’re not comfortable doing so, that it won’t impact their eligibility or their scholarship status.”
