Dodgers News: First Round of MLB COVID-19 Testing Yields Low Percentage of Positive Cases

MLB and the player’s association will be working together to minimize positive COVID tests as much as possible, but it will be tough. The good news is that the first round of intake testing has yielded some good results early on. While the Dodgers specifically could not be named, there were 11 teams without a positive result. 

Per MLB communication, the first round of testing had just 38 positive tests from the 3,185 total samples collected. This number includes both players and staff, with seven of them being staff members. For privacy reasons, whether or not there were any Dodgers to test positive was not released. 

The first set of results for COVID-19 testing have been jointly announced by @MLB and the @MLB_PLAYERS. pic.twitter.com/zlqZPuxLxh

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) July 3, 2020

Having any players test positive might sound like a bag thing, but the thing to remember is that this is intake testing. Dodgers’ players for example, were much more freed up to do whatever they wanted without rules or restrictions in the weeks leading up to the intake test period. MLB experts had expected a much larger figure to be revealed, but just over 1 percent is encouraging. 

With more testing in place and teams keeping track of players during workouts and exercises, that number could very well be contained. There is plenty of concern over MLB being able to go through an entire 60-game season, but if they can keep it at 1 percent, that should be no problem.

The Dodgers did not comment on Friday whether or not they had any positive tests, but manager Dave Roberts did allude to it somewhat. Roberts said that there were some players that would not be able to be with the team to start workouts, and that he could not go any further in explaining why. We will let you read between the lines on that particular issue. 

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