The Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell is reportedly the second NBA player to test positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19), ESPN reports. The news was first publicized by ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowksi who claims the first NBA athlete and Jazz player to contract the illness, Rudy Gobert, “had been carless in the locker room touching other players and their belongings.”
The news arrives a day after the NBA postponed the remainder of its season due to the situation that initially concerned Gobert. “The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic,” part of the statement reads. Sports journalist Shams Charania also reported that no other Jazz personnel or team members tested positive for the virus.
Jazz star Donovan Mitchell has tested positive for the coronavirus, league sources tell ESPN. Jazz players privately say that Rudy Gobert had been careless in the locker room touching other players and their belongings. Now a Jazz teammate has tested positive.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 12, 2020
NBA To Suspend Season Following Tonight’s Games pic.twitter.com/2PTx2fkLlW
— NBA (@NBA) March 12, 2020
Sources: Donovan Mitchell was the only Jazz player/personnel to test positive for coronavirus out of 58 tests administered on Wednesday night. Remaining tests came back negative.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 12, 2020
According to CBS News, the virus has claimed the lives of 32 people in the United States. There have been 118,000 global cases reported of those who’ve tested positive for the virus, noting that over 4,200 people have died globally. Additionally, 65,000 people have recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this as a pandemic after the virus was detected in 114 countries.
“In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled,” a WHO statement via NPR reads. “In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher.”