NBA says fully vaccinated players exempted from COVID-19 testing

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

With the new NBA season just a month away from kick-off, commissioner Adam Silver and his committees are finalizing the health and safety protocols the players and the coaches must follow.

After announcing that all of their referees must get their COVID-19 vaccines to become work eligible for the entire season, the NBA has made a new protocol that all fully-vaccinated players will no longer undergo the regular COVID-19 testing.

However, if a player or a coach shows any COVID-19 symptoms despite having their vaccines at full dose, they will still have to subject themselves to the testing.

In the case of the players who are still not fully vaccinated, they will still have to undergo the regular COVID-19 testing and will have to wear their masks all the time.

The league will still follow its past health and safety protocols regarding returning players who will have a positive result.

Fully-vaccinated or not, the players who will show positive results will have to enter the NBA isolation facility and will undergo another testing once isolation is done.

The NBA will officially begin its season once training camp starts on September 28 and will proceed to their season proper on October 19.