Houston shuts down voluntary workouts after 6 athletes test positive for COVID-19

The University of Houston has suspended all voluntary workouts after six symptomatic student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19.

Here’s more, from the school’s press release:

The University of Houston Department of Athletics is immediately suspending all voluntary workouts for student-athletes, out of an abundance of caution.
 
The decision, made in consultation with internal and external medical experts, comes after six symptomatic UH student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 along with the increase in the number of positive tests in the greater Houston area over the last week.
 
The impacted students have been placed in isolation and contact tracing procedures have been initiated following protocol.

On June 9, Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle reported that the university did not test the athletes for COVID-19 before allowing voluntary workout participation (which began on June 1).

That’s a very bad look for Houston, and it’s been a huge problem across college sports in recent weeks. Here’s a list of schools that have known COVID-19 positives cases:

A second COVID-19 wave is already underway (though the first one really never stopped), after reopenings and looser restrictions have occurred across the country. The city of Houston is even considering reimposing stay-at-home orders following the rise in COVID-19 cases.

There were already several reasons to be skeptical about the upcoming college basketball and football seasons happening in 2020, and athletes testing positive for COVID-19 after resuming team activities certainly won’t improve those chances.

The schools need to treat this situation with much more caution, and testing should be mandatory for all athletes before returning to team activities.