Two Washington Nationals players have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the team’s manager Davey Martinez announced Sunday.
Martinez did not reveal the names of the two infected players to the media. The results were from tests carried out on July 1. No further details were released by the team.
“Everybody assumed that everybody (that) got in got tested on Wednesday,” Martinez told reporters. “That wasn’t the case for us. We still got guys out there that came in late and are still waiting on the results. I think being — this weekend, things were a little tough because it was a holiday weekend. So hopefully we’ll get all these results tomorrow and guys will start trickling in and get ready to work out.”
The manager also said that he was doing his best to stay healthy himself. “I wash my hands 47 times a day. I wear my mask everywhere. I leave here with gloves on. I’m going to do everything I can to stay healthy. The biggest part of that is not to get anybody else sick, in case I do come up with it. I don’t want to get anybody sick. I worry about that more than I worry about me getting sick. I just want to make sure I’m healthy and everybody else stays healthy.”
The news comes on the eve of the new season of Major League Baseball (MLB) which is scheduled to start later this month.
An employee of the Washington Nationals had also tested positive for the infectious disease in April.
Three of the team’s players, Ryan Zimmerman, Joe Ross, and Welington Castilo, will not be playing in the 2020-2021 season.
The upcoming season is set to open July 23 and it will be the first one in MLB history to be played without the attendance of fans.