The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association agreed to changes to health and safety protocols that offer expanded benefits for those who have been fully vaccinated, according to a memo sent to teams Wednesday night that was reviewed by ESPN.
Specifically, the protocol changes apply to anyone who is “two weeks after their final dose and any team where 85% of the players and 85% of the staff are fully vaccinated,” the memo says.
Fully vaccinated individuals will no longer need to be quarantined after exposure to COVID-19; You can get friends, family, and others to visit you at home and on tour without them trying out or registering with the equipment. and you can dine al fresco at restaurants, among other relaxed restrictions.
Fully vaccinated teams will no longer have to wear masks in practice facilities; have more flexibility to leave the team’s hotel on tours and can dine indoors or outdoors at restaurants, among other relaxed restrictions.
Here’s the infographic distributed to NBA teams that details the eased restrictions for vaccinated individuals and vaccinated teams: https://t.co/uSuMVkP4cR pic.twitter.com/7uOY4ugjUg
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) March 18, 2021
These benefits follow recent guidelines announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for those who have been fully vaccinated. One of the guidelines announced by the CDC was that fully vaccinated people can gather indoors without wearing a mask.
A Western Conference head athletic coach, echoing others in league health circles, said there is hope the new benefits will serve as a motivational factor for those who might be considering vaccinations. But that head athletic trainer also called for caution, saying that just because someone has been vaccinated, they will still have to act responsibly, and that daily COVID-19 testing is expected to remain part of the NBA routine.
It is not yet clear how many people in the League have been vaccinated, but League sources have said that various team athletic training officials, coaches and other qualifying team staff in the specific states in which their teams reside have received at least your first dose.
ESPN reported Sunday that dozens of eligible members of the New Orleans Pelicans, including several players, received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine after the governor of Louisiana expanded eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine.
As for players outside of the Pelicans, league sources said that so far only a small number of players have received a dose of the vaccine and that those who received it have pre-existing conditions.
– .
