One SOU student-athlete, one coach test positive for COVID-19

On Friday, a symptomatic student-athlete and an asymptomatic coach at Southern Oregon University tested positive for COVID-19, prompting all athletic activities to be suspended through Tuesday.

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Announcer says "now, from the jim sigel automotive sports desk, newswatch 12 sports with josh shelton."

Yesterday newswatch 12 sports was the first to tell you about the positive covid-19 cases within southern oregon university athletics.

Today-- while all athletic activities remained suspended-- i spoke with s-o-u athletic director matt sayre.

He told me how they used today to review the protocols they put in place before testing began in anticipation of a positive case.

A few days after the first cases were reported within s-o-u athletics, the department spent tuesday going over how their plans worked.

:52 matt sayre says, "communication's been good.

I think we are just looking to make sure that our protocols and procedures align with what happened... to make sure that this was a first test case literally, uh, worked well and communication was good and we've got the student athletes taken care of and in the best situation we can.

" sayre explained exactly how s-o-u would normally handle a positive case through their testing procedure.

1:39 sayre says, "our process, when we get a positive test results with a student athlete or a coach or anybody else in the athletic department, we will suspend activities in that sport, uh, that specific sport.

Uh, basically quarantine them or suspend the activities until the contact tracing can happen."

The first two cases were a little different.

One of the positive cases was symptomatic so the person was tested on their own.

Combined with the asymptomatic case, s-o-u had a bit more to deal with but everything worked out.

7:41 sayre says, "we've got a good plan in place.

Good protocols, not just with the athletic department, but with our campus, our health and wellness center, and that relationship with the public health jackson county public health, uh, it's just, it worked well.

" while sayre and the athletic department had their plans tested earlier than they anticipated, student-athlete and coaches safety was always top priority.

4:09 sayre says, "it has been a learning experience and nerve wracking because the one thing we