After weeks of reporting zero positive COVID-19 cases in its weekly testing of student-athletes, USC responded to eight new positive cases by pausing football and men's water polo workouts, the school announced Wednesday.
Workouts in those sports will be halted until at least Monday and all eight student-athletes who tested positive have been isolated, per the news release. It does not specify how many of the eight were from each sport.
USC had just one positive case among 654 tested athletes across six sports from July 18 through Aug. 21.
The news release adds: "It is clear from contact tracing that the virus was contracted off campus as a result of increased community spread and not via any on-campus or training activities."
Players from both teams who have been participating in on-campus workouts will be tested again this week.
"We have effective mitigation strategies in place," USC athletic director Mike Bohn said in a statement. "But out of an abundance of caution we are pausing athletics activities in football and men's water polo while we await additional test results and USC completes the contact tracing process."
