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Georgia State vs. Charlotte game mistakenly postponed because of 'errors in reading COVID-19 test results'

The Georgia State vs. Charlotte football game should have been played on Saturday.

The game was postponed on Friday because Georgia State said it had “COVID positive tests and contact tracing” within its program. However, the school said Sunday that a mistake had been made in the reading of those test results.

“The positive COVID tests that caused Georgia State to postpone Saturday's scheduled game at Charlotte turned out to be the result of errors in reading the test results,” Georgia State said in a release.

Georgia State said it tested its athletes and staff members three times last week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The first two rounds of testing produced “zero positive tests,” and the results from Thursday’s tests “became available on Friday afternoon, just before the team’s scheduled departure” to Charlotte. Four out of the 135 tests came back positive with 17 other individuals (including one coach) needing to be quarantined through contact tracing.

“Out of an abundance of caution for the rest of our team and Charlotte, we could not in good conscience put our team on the bus and play a game,” Georgia State athletic director Charlie Cobb said.

However, it was later determined that a “human error” on Friday morning “caused the error in test results.” Cobb said the school re-tested the individuals who came up positive later on Friday. By Friday night, the lab the school uses informed the school that “none tested positive,” Cobb said.

“As part of our protocols, we tested the individuals again Friday afternoon and were informed by our lab Friday night that none tested positive. They also retested the swabs from Thursday and all tested negative as well. It was at this point that the lab director informed our medical staff that a human error Friday morning caused the error in test results,” Cobb said.

“The disappointing news is that we could have played on Saturday. More importantly, the positive news is we are not dealing with an outbreak at this time. We appreciate the professionalism shown by [Charlotte Director of Athletics] Mike Hill and Coach [Will] Healy throughout the past 48 hours.”

Georgia State will return to practice on Monday to begin preparing for its home game against East Carolina next Saturday. The Panthers have played one game so far in 2020, a 34-31 overtime loss to Louisiana on Sept. 19.

Georgia State helmets on the sidelines.
The positive COVID-19 tests that caused Georgia State to postpone Saturday's scheduled game at Charlotte "turned out to be the result of errors in reading the test results,” the school said. (David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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