As several teams deal with an outbreak of COVID cases, the NFL and NFL Players Association have agreed to some changes to its COVID protocols.
The league announced on Thursday that all 32 teams will be in “intensive COVID-19 protocols” until the end of Week 15. This requires mandatory mask wearing in team facilities, social distancing, grab-and-go meal service in team cafeterias, all-virtual meetings, limited number of people in the weight rooms and restrictions outside the facility.
Players must remain in the hotel on road trips and no longer able to entertain visitors – a rule that was in place last season as well.
Teams that have already entered intensive protocols due to outbreaks will continue daily testing regardless of vaccination status but the rest of the teams will not need to do this.
The return-to-play protocols are also being adjusted to make it easier for players who are vaccinated and asymptomatic to return to practice and games.
The new protocols allow for asymptomatic indicudals to take two PCR tets, two Mesa tests or one PCR and one Mesa test concurrently and return to work if they produce a negative test.
Previously, players who fit under this category had to produce two negative tests 24 hours apart. This means teams such as the Browns, Rams and Washington could get players back for their games this weekend.
Unvaccinated players must continue to isolate for 10 days.
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