MANILA – The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will resume its bubble season on Tuesday (Nov.3) after adhering to additional protocols recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
“With the health and safety of each of the 350 participants as the PBA’s top priorities in the bubble, the organization commits to comply with the latest recommendations from the IATF: the completion of the 10-day isolation of a Blackwater player from the date of swabbing before resuming the games; the completion of a 14-day quarantine and testing before entering the bubble for all those who will test positive moving forward; and, the appointment of an independent marshall who shall oversee and ensure compliance with health and safety protocols, as recommended by the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government),” the PBA bared the new bubble rules in a statement on Saturday.
Tuesday will mark exactly the 10th day the Elite retook the test after initially testing positive in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test but was later tested negative in an antigen test and a second RT-PCR.
The league is currently holding a bubble in Angeles with the delegates staying at the Quest Hotel within the Clark Freeport Zone.
The games are held at the Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center in the city’s downtown.
A temporary quarantine facility was put up inside Clark for future suspected coronavirus disease cases.
Despite the new bubble measures, the PBA insisted, “The PBA bubble has not been breached but we must always strengthen our protocols in consultation with the IATF and NTF to ensure the safety of everyone in the bubble.”