The Youngstown State University women’s basketball program prepared for its first game, starting with Saturday’s contest at Northern Kentucky University.

No non-conference games. No scrimmages. YSU was slated to start Horizon League play.

The beginning of the 2020-21 season was put on hold once again as the Penguins women’s basketball team had a positive COVID-19 test within the program’s Tier 1 bubble, pausing all team activities. The Tier 1 bubble consists of student-athletes, coaches, managers and limited support staff.

The Saturday and Sunday games at NKU and those Dec. 19-20 at Green Bay are canceled. If all goes well and the team returns to practice in a timely fashion, the Penguins can play Jan. 1 against Wright State at the Beeghly Center.

This is the second time the Penguins paused team activities. The first one was Nov. 19 to Dec. 1.

Members of the Tier 1 bubble who previously tested positive do not have to quarantine.

The CDC says: “To date, reinfection appears to be uncommon during the initial 90 days after symptom onset of the preceding infection.”

YSU women’s basketball coach John Barnes said he is not allowed to mention those players who had or anyone on his team who currently has COVID-19.

The CDC states those in quarantine should:

¯ Stay home for 14 days after your last contact with a person who has COVID-19;

¯ Watch for fever (100.4 degrees fahrenheit or above), cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of COVID-19;

¯ If possible, stay away from others, especially people who are at higher risk for getting very sick from COVID-19.

“The ones that have already had it can continue to work out,” Barnes said. “The ones that are quarantined can do workouts in their room.”

Barnes said the Penguins had some injured players, but did not want to divulge the identity of those players.

“They will take advantage of this time,” Barnes said.

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety and the Youngstown Health Department will monitor those exposed through contract tracing.

The CDC said quarantine could be reduced, but only through the approval of the local health department, to 10 days without testing or after the seventh day after receiving a negative test result. That test must occur on day five of quarantine or later.

Requirements for those who test positive for COVID-19 are quite stringent. The Youngstown City Health District requires isolation. The NCAA orginally stated it wanted those who tested positive to have 14 days of no activity whatsoever, but that was before the CDC amended its recommendation for quarantine earlier this month.

YSU Director of Athletics Ron Strollo said in an earlier interview there are a littany of tests to undergo.

“After that, you have to do a heart checkup, which includes blood work, an EKG (checking for a variety of heart conditions), and an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart that provides moving pictures and provides information on the structure and function of the heart, according to myheart.net). All of that needs to be scheduled. All of that is separate, but they need to be scheduled with hospitals or physicians. The results need to be evaluated.”

Negative results equate to more recovery time for the person who tested positive for COVID-19.

“That’s another situation that could leave kids out months,” Strollo said.

After clearance is given through testing, the NCAA requires that 7- to 10-day acclimation period.