The New York Yankees announced Thursday that shortstop Gleyber Torres has tested positive for the coronavirus, the eighth player or staffer to test positive in the current outbreak.
“The Yankees can today confirm that INF Gleyber Torres has received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis,” the team said in a statement. “He was fully vaccinated and previously had COVID-19 during the most recent baseball offseason. Torres has been placed on the COVID-19 injured list, and the Yankees have recalled INF/OF Miguel Andújar (#41) from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.”
All are currently under quarantine protocol in Tampa.
Despite the outbreak, the team has not had to interrupt its schedule so far.
Manager Aaron Boone said MLB’s Joint COVID-19 Health and Safety Committee is waiting and reviewing a number of test results.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the department is looking into the outbreak.
“With regard to the Yankees, we obviously need to learn more about that situation,” she said. “My understanding is that six of the seven reports, six of the seven infections were indeed asymptomatic infections. And we will look to more data from that report to understand what happened there. 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 are effective, have a high effectiveness against disease.”
“The New York State Department of Health has been in contact with Major League Baseball and the NY Yankees to get a better understanding of where and when these coaches were vaccinated,” the statement read. “While there have been anecdotal reports of New Yorkers who have had a positive COVID test 14 or more days after receiving their last vaccine dose, DOH is investigating those cases along with the ones linked to the Yankees further to determine if they meet the formal CDC definition of vaccine breakthrough.”
