Florida Gators football confirms six coronavirus cases

Per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN) and Florida television station WCJB , the Florida Gators football team learned of six new coronavirus cases in the school's latest round of testing. In total, the university's athletic department discovered 61 new coronavirus cases, including 31 within the lacrosse team and 15 among members of the baseball team.

Those two programs temporarily halted all activities due to the outbreak.

As Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel noted, one Florida football player tested positive last week. Previously, the program had avoided COVID-19 cases since mandatory workouts began on July 14. The recent outbreak coincides with students returning to campus for fall classes.

Florida is scheduled to open its season versus Ole Miss on Sept. 26. That game remains on the calendar, for now, despite Tuesday's news.

"I think our medical staff here is doing a fabulous job of everything, creating one of the safest environments in Gainesville, or if not the state of Florida here within our football program," Gators head coach Dan Mullen said on Monday.

"I give a lot of credit to our players. They’ve done an amazing job. I think any time you infuse, whatever, 50,000 students onto campus you’re going to have a spike. Our guys, we have a minor one, but when you look at the numbers, if you take out the false positives — I can’t get into the specifics of all that, there’s legal issues with those — I think I give our guys a lot of credit for what they’ve been able to do and continue to do moving forward.”

It's unknown if any of the players who tested positive will play against Ole Miss.