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Topline
New York Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres has tested positive for coronavirus, the team confirmed Thursday, making him the eighth player, coach or traveling staff member of the team to be diagnosed with Covid-19 this week, even though all eight have been fully vaccinated.
Torres is the first player to test positive for Covid-19 among the eight. The others are third base … [+]
MLB Photos via Getty Images
Key Facts
Torres didn’t play in Wednesday’s game out of an “abundance of caution” as a joint committee of league and team doctors reviewed his results.
On Thursday afternoon, Torres was officially placed on the Covid-19 injured list.
New York called up infielder Miguel Andújar from the team’s Triple-A affiliate to replace Torres on the roster.
Key Background:
Torres is the first player to test positive for Covid-19 among the eight. The others are third base coach Phil Nevin, first base coach Reggie Willits, pitching coach Matt Blake and four unnamed support staffers, who have been forced to quarantine after positive tests. The fact that the team stated all eight were fully vaccinated raises questions. The team said that six of the seven are asymptomatic, with the seventh experiencing only mild symptoms. According to updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance released last week, breakthrough cases “are expected,” as “no vaccines are 100% effective.” The CDC states, “there will be a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from Covid-19.” The St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League announced Wednesday that defenseman Jake Walman, who has been vaccinated, tested positive for Covid-19.
Big Number:
0.0001%. Among the more than 95 million people in the U.S. who had been fully vaccinated as of April 26, there were only 9,245 reports of vaccine breakthrough infections. However, the CDC does note that reported breakthrough cases “will represent an undercount,” as its surveillance system is “passive and relies on voluntary reporting from state health departments.”
Tangent:
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky was asked about the peculiar development during her press briefing on Thursday. “With regard to the Yankees, we obviously need to learn more about that situation. My understanding is that six of the seven infections were indeed asymptomatic infections and we will look to more data from that report to understand what happened there,” Walensky said. “All of the real world data we’ve seen that’s been in the published literature, large studies, in many different settings, have demonstrated that those vaccines have a high effectiveness against disease.”
Further Reading:
COVID-19 Breakthrough Case Investigations and Reporting (CDC)
Gleyber Torres tests positive for COVID-19 as Yankees’ outbreak grows (New York Post)
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