ATLANTA — Georgia State University reports that the Panthers will once again take to the gridiron on Saturday after false-positive COVID tests postponed the game this weekend.
Georgia State reported on Sunday that there were errors in the Thursday tests that forced the postponement and that they had also had tests on Monday and Wednesday that came back negative.
“Friday afternoon, as we were loading the buses to play a football game at Charlotte, we were informed that four individuals out of 135 had tested positive for coronavirus from our third test in four days as part of our protocol to play," athletic director Charlie Cobb said. "Through contact tracing, we identified 17 others, including one coach, who would require quarantining."
Cobb said this was their first report of positive test results in three weeks among the athletic program.
“Out of an abundance of caution for the rest of our team and Charlotte, we could not in good conscience put our team on the bus and play a game," he said.
But as part of the team's protocols, Cobb said they tested again on Friday and none of those tests came back positive.
"They also retested the swabs from Thursday and all tested negative as well," he said. "It was at this point that the lab director informed our medical staff that a human error Friday morning caused the error in test results."
He added that while it was disappointing that they weren't able to play, it was good news that they weren't dealing with an outbreak.
He said that, since April, the athletic program had experienced a positivity rate of 1.7 percent.
The Panthers were scheduled to take on the Charlotte 49ers on Saturday before the game was called off. Officials have not decided when the game will be played.
Georgia State is scheduled to host East Carolina on Saturday.
