NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton learned Thursday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, he told ESPN.
Payton is the first employee of either an NFL team or the league to make such a diagnosis public. He told the network that he came forward to motivate people to educate themselves about what they can do to help fight the pandemic.
Payton said he took the test Monday after he began to feel ill a day earlier, but also said he has not been admitted to a hospital and does not have a fever or cough. The 56-year-old coach said he has been resting comfortably at home, where is in in self-quarantine.
“I was fortunate to be in the minority, without the serious side effects that some have. I’m lucky,” Payton told ESPN. “Younger people feel like they can handle this, but they can be a carrier to someone who can’t handle it. So we all need to do our part. It’s important for every one of us to do our part.”
Payton said he felt it was important to be particularly vigilant in Louisiana and the New Orleans area because of international tourist traffic, especially around recently concluded Mardi Gras festivites.
“So our parents, and those that are more susceptible to this virus, deserve everyone doing their best to combat it,” Payton said. “There are hundreds of people right now in tough predicaments, fighting for their lives. Let’s be part of the solution, not the problem. We can easily help reduce the numbers of those impacted. We have to do our best to beat this.
“This is not just about social distancing. It’s shutting down here for a week to two weeks. If people understand the curve, and understand the bump, we can easily work together as a country to reduce it.
“Take a minute to understand what the experts are saying. It’s not complicated to do what they’re asking of us. Just that type of small investment by every one of us will have a dramatic impact.
AUTO RACING: The iconic Monaco Grand Prix was canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak and two other Formula One races were postponed.
F1’s showcase race was scheduled for May 24 in the tiny principality on the Mediterranean coast between France and Italy.
Hours after being postponed, along with races in the Netherlands and Spain, it was scrapped for 2020.
A race has been held every year since 1955 on Monaco’s sinewy street circuit, amid a backdrop of yachts, the simmering blue water of the famed harbor, and clinking Champagne glasses of the rich and famous.
The Automobile Club de Monaco said in a statement Thursday evening that “the situation is no longer tenable” for hosting the race and that it could not be rescheduled.
The Dutch GP was set to return to its re-vamped Zandvoort track outside Amsterdam to host an F1 race on May 3, for the first time since the late Niki Lauda won there in 1985. Spain was set to follow on May 10.
Because of the latest postponements, the F1 season cannot get underway until June 7 at the Azerbaijan GP.
Governing body FIA said the season will begin “as soon as it is safe to do so.”
OLYMPICS: With the coronavirus death toll now higher in Italy than anywhere else, two senior sports executives from the country issued emotional appeals to the International Olympic Committee to revise its stance over the Tokyo Games.
“I’m not against the Olympics. But saying that the Olympics will still go on is a big mistake in communication,” Giovanni Petrucci, who served as president of the Italian Olympic Committee for 14 years, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“This pandemic is affecting the entire world,” Petrucci added, his voice breaking up with despair. “I know about the billion-dollar contracts, the insurance deals. I know it all. But human life is worth more than all of those things.”
Petrucci’s call came after regional Olympic officials rallied around the IOC’s stance on opening the Tokyo Games as scheduled on July 24.
NBA: The NBA has told its teams to close its training and practice facilities to all players and staff starting Friday, saying the shuttering will last indefinitely in the latest response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The league told teams of the new directive in a memo sent Thursday afternoon, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. As recently as Monday, the NBA was telling teams that individual workouts could take place using what the league called the “one player, one coach, one basket” rule.
Now, that’s not even permitted. If players are going to work out during the league’s shutdown, they’ll have to do it at home or some other private facility.
The NBA said it was updating the guidelines “in light of the rapidly-developing coronavirus situation, and consistent with evolving advice from health experts regarding how to promote individual and public health while minimizing the spread of the virus.” It further recommended that players “should take aggressive measures to avoid contact with others and remain home as much as possible, leaving only for essential activities.”
The league described those activities as “buying food, medicine, or other necessary supplies; obtaining critical medical services; providing necessary care for a family member in another household; or attending to some other emergency.”
• The Philadelphia 76ers say three members of the organization have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Sixers did not identify the members. They say players, coaches and specific basketball operations support staff were tested for COVID-19. The tests were secured and processed privately. All other tests results are currently negative.
The individuals are in self-isolation and will be monitored closely by medical professionals.
BASEBALL: Major League Baseball called off what was to have been its first two regular-season games in Mexico City, along with a three-game series in Puerto Rico because of the new coronavirus.
Arizona and San Diego were to have played on April 18 and 19 at Mexico City’s Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium, a 20,000-capacity ballpark that opened in March 2019.
The New York Mets and Miami had been scheduled to play a three-game series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan from April 28-30.
MLB has delayed opening day until mid-May at the earliest.
• Major League Baseball announced that minor league players shut out of spring training camps amid the coronavirus outbreak will receive allowances from teams through April 8, and a plan is underway to compensate those players during the postponed portion of the regular season.
Minor leaguers will receive allowances of $400 per week from teams in a lump sum for the next three weeks – a significant bump from their usual spring per diems of $100-200 per week. Teams hope that will allow players to cover housing, food and other expenses through the previously scheduled end of spring training.
The minor league season had been set to open April 9 but is being delayed. MLB said it is working with teams to develop an industry-wide plan to compensate players for missed games.
SOCCER: Major League Soccer is targeting a May 10 return to play and will consider pushing back its championship game by a month into December.
After announcing a 30-day suspension last week because of the new coronavirus, the league said it will follow last weekend’s recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to not hold events involving more than 50 people for eight weeks.
GOLF: The first player under the PGA Tour umbrella has tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home to South Africa from playing a developmental tour event in Mexico.
The PGA Tour says Victor Lange made his only PGA Tour Latinoamerica start in the Estrella Del Mar Open in Mazatlan, Mexico. About a week after he returned home, Lange accompanied a friend to an unrelated doctor’s appointed and was tested as a precaution.
The tour said in statement the 26-year-old Lange received the diagnosis Tuesday night. The tour said he has no symptoms and is expected to make a full recovery while under quarantine and medical supervision at his home in Johannesburg.
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