Cal players who tested COVID-positive should be available at Stanford

The parents of Chase Garbers confirmed the Cal quarterback should be back for the Big Game.

The parents of Chase Garbers attended a Zoom meeting with other Cal football parents and head coach Justin Wilcox. They learned that their son should be ready to go for this week’s Big Game against Stanford, along with the bulk of starters who tested positive.

Total positives in the program reached 47 early in the week (there were 44 in the report from the Berkeley health department). This included an entire position group, forcing the USC game to be rescheduled, but have apparently plateaued since then.

Justin Wilcox addresses the media on Cal COVID situation

Also, a new bit of news: There were 31 symptomatic positives in the program.

Considering there are only two unvaccinated individuals in the program, that is a significant development. The now dominant delta variant of COVID-19 has proven to be very infectious, even from the vaccinated individuals who test positive.

UCSF doctor (and Cal grad) Monica Gandhi has been a very public face on this issue and many other Bay Area public health issues regarding COVID-19. She originally opposed the decision by the City of Berkeley to test at such a teamwide scale in a local TV interview. And she still stands opposed to regular testing of asymptomatic.

However, she did admit in the article that 31 symptomatic individuals should all be following regular quarantine guidelines. It does seem as if the infectious time period is smaller for the vaccinated, but still there is general consensus that symptomatic cases should be quarantining ASAP to prevent spread conditions.

All individuals who submitted positive tests require 10-day quarantines, per City of Berkeley and Pac-12 policy. Garbers did seem to be frustrated with the overall process of team-wide testing and quarantine, based on a public statement he released in Twitter.

So it’s likely that all Cal players and staff who tested positive and missed the Arizona game should be back in action and practicing normally on Big Game week. Players who tested positive early last week should also be available, but might not be able to practice normally this week.

Chase Garbers @ChaseGarbers

Opportunities lie ahead