Coronavirus: Los Angeles Lakers Cleared Of COVID-19 After Two-Week Quarantine

KEY POINTS

The Los Angeles Lakers are now cleared of COVID-19
Alex Caruso said the pandemic should be taken seriously
US death toll now at 3,400

The Los Angeles Lakers have been cleared of the Coronavirus disease, a report said.

Players of the LA-based squad completed the mandatory quarantine period from their testing held on March 18 following the announcement from the Brooklyn Nets – whom the team played on March 10 before the NBA suspended the season - that four of their players tested positive for the disease.

Two unnamed players from the Lakers were then confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 until Bill Oram of The Athletic said Tuesday that all players are now cleared from the virus and are symptom-free.

“All Lakers players are currently symptom-free of COVID-19. The team will continue to follow the health and safety guidelines set by government officials, the Lakers, and the NBA,” Oram wrote as he quoted the Lakers.

Lakers send update saying that players completed 14-day home isolation today. “All Lakers players are currently symptom-free of COVID-19. The team will continue to follow the health and safety guidelines set by government offcials, the Lakers and the NBA.”
— Bill Oram (@billoram) March 31, 2020

But despite completing the required two-week quarantine period, the Lakers, especially those who opted to stay in California after the league announced its hiatus, will still have to stay at home as ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, 14 out of 17 players from the Lakers roster were initially tested. As for the procedure, the players were reportedly asked not to leave their vehicles once arriving at the test site as each had a “cotton swab being placed up players' nostrils to secure a culture.”

Lakers guard Alex Caruso shared the experience with ESPN last week and said, "Everybody said the test is uncomfortable, and it pretty much was. They just stuck a Q-tip through your nose to the back of your mouth.”

The former undrafted guard out of Texas A&M also discussed the team’s approach in dealing with the pandemic, emphasizing that the health crisis something that should be taken seriously.

"The thing I think people aren't realizing is how serious of an ordeal this is and that it's not to be taken lightly," he said.

The United States has been seeing the country’s number of COVID-19 confirmed cases rise exponentially as they surpassed China for the most number of deaths recorded with 3,400 as of writing, per the John Hopkins University.

There have been 820,000 positive cases all over the world with at least 174,000 recoveries and about 40,000 fatalities.