Golden Nuggets, 7/19: Five positive coronavirus tests push total to eight

The California Golden Bears athletic department has confirmed five new positive COVID-19 test results, pushing Cal’s total positive tests to eight. That’s after testing 125 student-athletes upon their return to campus and after they had three positive results on 96 tests at the tail-end of June.

In a story published by the Mercury News, Cal has conducted 250 tests on 125 student-athletes, some of whom had been tested several times.

“Some individuals received more than one test, such as at the beginning and end of their initial self-quarantine period per campus guidelines, as a result of contact tracing, or as part of ongoing surveillance testing,” the statement said. “We have confidence in the protocols we have in place and the results are in line with expectations.”

This comes, of course, after the latest boom in positive tests results as far east as Florida and as nearby as the state of Arizona and even in southern California.

The state had 9,088 positive results on Wednesday of last week and had a new rolling seven-day average of nearly 9,000 positive cases a day. The death rate has risen in the state as well and I only bring this up on our athletics site here to help possibly explain why or figure out a reason why the NCAA hasn’t come up with some sort of guidance as to how to get an athletic season in the works for this fall or just make the decision to plan ahead to spring.

Still, compared to some of the other major college athletic universities, eight positive tests for the Cal Bears, though eight is eight too many, is still a remotely good sign of things being done properly by the Cal student-athletes and athletic department.

Here’s hoping the positive results can continue to diminish and the positivity can continue to rise for the possibility of sports in the fall.

In other news for your Cal Bears:

Field Hockey postpones their season

Women’s track and field recognized with Academic Awards

Men’s Basketball earns team academic excellence award

Pick Six names seven Golden Bears to preseason All-Pac-12 Teams

Dimatteo, Spieker join Cal Rugby advisory board