If so inclined, an NBA player could now test himself for the coronavirus and get results on his phone in no more than 20 minutes.
And the league is convinced those tests are both fast enough and accurate enough.
It’s a high-tech answer to the issue of waiting for test results. The NBA has partnered with a company called
The NBA, based on a study done by the
“We were in clinical studies when COVID hit,” Cue CEO and co-founder
Testing results last season, in some cases, kept NBA teams and players waiting for hours.
The relationship with Cue and the league has now touched parts of three seasons. It essentially began when the league was assembling plans for the NBA’s restart bubble to finish the 2019-20 season, and the technology has only continued evolving since. The test is of the molecular diagnostic variety and is authorized by the
“We have great experience with the Cue test and are confident in its effectiveness to identify cases when testing is necessary in our highly vaccinated population,” said
For now, it doesn’t seem likely that many in the NBA will have to use the Cue test on a regular basis.
Those who are fully vaccinated will not be tested regularly; only the players who are unvaccinated — roughly 4% of the league, or basically one per team on average — will be subject to taking the tests on practice, meeting and travel days. Game-day clearance for those players will still require a conventional PCR test.
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