Vikings head trainer tests positive for COVID-19

A Minnesota Vikings helmet sits on the field
A Minnesota Vikings helmet sits on the field during warm-ups before a game against the Oakland Raiders in Minneapolis.
Adam Bettcher | Getty Images 2019

The Minnesota Vikings said Monday the team’s head athletic trainer and infection control officer has tested positive for COVID-19.

Eric Sugarman, who also serves as the team’s vice president of sports medicine, tested positive for the disease, as did members of his family and are in self-quarantine.

The Vikings say Sugarman had no recent contact with players and no other front-office cases have been identified.

“We have followed the team's protocol for sanitizing the facility and for notifying any personnel who may have been in close contact with Eric. Those individuals have been tested and are returning under the established guidelines,” the team said in a statement.

Sugarman will continue to work as the team’s infectious control officer “virtually as much as possible, and his athletic training staff and other Vikings personnel will assist where necessary,” the team added.

In a separate statement through the Vikings, Sugarman said he and his family member are “experiencing only mild symptoms.”

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