Over the past few days, reports of COVID-19 infections at different MLB sites have been rising. After the news broke of 17 Miami Marlins players testing positive for the illness the MLB offices have been scrambling to find a way to continue the season safely.
Will Feuer of CNBC has reported that New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has invited Major League Baseball teams to come play their games at some of the extra stadiums that the state has.
The report comes after several MLB games needing to be postponed due to the risk of more players being infected. The governor explained that “the state can keep players better protected from the coronavirus that has led to postponed games and cast doubt on the return of the sport”.
Cuomo told reporters that “New York state could host any Major League Baseball games that any teams want to play and they could play those games in our stadiums,” he went on to explain that the state is better equipt with more resources and testing sites and the ability to keep the players safe when other states are struggling to do so.
Additionally, he outlined a rough plan of how they could implement extra precautions such as “chartering private planes” and having a “quarantine hotel” where the players would have to stay isolated and be tested before they were cleared to play.
Lastly, Cuomo added that the New York media could greatly benefit from a plan like this, helping improve the state economy which has been fighting to stay afloat during the duration of the pandemic.
New York was initially one of the epicenters of the widespread virus leading to it having one of the highest infection rates in the country.
Now several months later due to the state’s meticulous response to the rising infection rates, New York currently has one of the lowest positive testing percentages with Cuomo reporting it to be “less than 1%” on Monday.
As of right now the plan going forward is that the MLB would “conduct additional COVID-19 testing” and “members of the Marlins’ traveling party” would have to self-quarantine while they awaited additional test results.
