LEWISBURG, Pa. – The COVID-19 tests within the Bucknell men’s and women’s basketball Tier 1 group that were announced as positive on Saturday have been amended from a positive to a negative result by Genetworx, the laboratory that conducted the testing.
As such, the student-athletes, coaches and other Tier 1 personnel from both teams have been released from quarantine and will return to practice and their regular COVID-19 testing sequencing on Monday. This weekend’s games against Lehigh, which were previously announced as postponed, will be played as scheduled. The Bucknell men’s basketball team will travel to Lehigh on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest, and Lehigh will visit Sojka Pavilion for a 4 p.m. game on Sunday. The Bison women will host Lehigh on Saturday at 2 p.m., and then travel to Bethlehem for a 4 p.m. contest on Sunday.
The men’s and women’s teams had been scheduled to play two games each against Colgate this past weekend. Makeups for those postponements will be announced at a later date.
Statement from Dr. Catherine O’Neil, Bucknell Student Health Medical Director
You may have seen media reports over the weekend announcing positive COVID-19 test results for two students associated with the Bison men’s and women’s basketball teams, and the related postponement of scheduled games against Colgate and Lehigh. Bucknell has since learned that these results were not, in fact, positive, but were incorrectly recorded as such by Genetworx, our COVID-19 test provider. Quality control processes in place at Genetworx caught the error. The two tests in question were re-run at Genetworx when the error in recording was discovered, and both samples were confirmed negative. The two students will be retested today as an extra precaution.
The men’s and women’s games scheduled for Jan. 30 and 31 against Lehigh will proceed. Additional information about athletics schedules can be found on the Bucknell Athletics website.
We remain confident in the accuracy of the COVID-19 tests administered by Genetworx, as well as the effectiveness of the health and safety protocol followed by our student-athletes and team support staff.
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