7 Clippers Staffers In Quarantine After Reported New Year's Eve Gathering In Salt Lake City
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Several Los Angeles Clippers employees are reportedly in quarantine after a member of the team's support staff tested positive for COVID-19.
The seven staffers had traveled in vans from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles this weekend, but did not travel with players, coaches or team management, according to ESPN. The team played the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night, winning 112-107.
According to the report, contact tracing of the positive test linked the staff members to a New Year's Eve staff gathering with food and drinks in a presidential suite of a Salt Lake City team hotel where mask wearing was "intermittent."
The NBA season is underway outside the bubble it operated in during the summer to protect players and teams. The league last month released updated COVID-19 safety guidelines that included limited team traveling parties to 45 people, including 17 players. But even without the quarantined staffers, the team said they had enough support staff for Sunday night's game.
The league's new policies include warnings, fines, suspensions or educational sessions for violations of the safety guidelines.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)