Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell recover from COVID-19

The Utah Department of Health announced yesterday that the first two NBA players confirmed to have been infected by the coronavirus have now been cleared of it. The Utah Jazz released a statement that apart from both players, the entire Jazz organisation is coronavirus free.

Jazz center Rudy Gobert and guard Donovan Mitchell were the first two NBA players confirmed to have COVID-19. It led NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to arbitrarily suspend all NBA games for at least 30 days and will resume until further notice. At this point, there are already plans on restarting the 2019-2020 season, but nothing is set in stone due to the escalating outbreak.

According to NBA.com, Mitchell was asymptomatic during the entire ordeal. Gobert had mild symptoms but suffered mostly from fear, anxiety, and embarrassment from the guilt of being responsible for bringing the virus to the NBA. There is no scientific basis that he did, but being the first confirmed case and the trigger that led to the suspension, there are parties that are unfairly blaming Gobert for the troubles plaguing the league.

In his March 15 statement, the French player publicly apologized to everyone for endangering the health of many people. The third player confirmed to have the virus, Christian Wood of the Detroit Pistons, had close contact with Gobert during a game on March 7.

The game should have been a career highlight for Wood after scoring 30 points and grabbing 11 rebounds that night. No other Pistons player scored more than 14 or grabbed more than 5 rebounds. It was a season-high performance. Instead, it will be remembered as the night he got the novel coronavirus. The Pistons report that Wood is showing signs of full recovery, and the power forward revealed that he already cleared the initial negative test. The team is only waiting for the second test result before making an official announcement.

Once Wood is declared cleared by the Michigan Department of Health, we can expect more NBA players to follow. 99% of those infected by the virus fully recover from it, and a vast majority only show mild symptoms. Only people with preexisting conditions or old age are at high risk of complications. No case of complications has been recorded for children below the age of 9.