California University Football Team Has To Cancel Game After Massive COVID Outbreak Even Though They Are 99% Vaccinated

In a statement provided to SFGATE, Berkeley's Department of Public Health laid out previously unreported details about what is clearly a major COVID-19 outbreak in the Cal football program — including that at least 44 people in the program have tested positive for COVID over the past week or so.

"Berkeley Public Health continues to work closely with University Health Services to help contain and respond to a major COVID-19 outbreak involving the coaches, students, and staff in the Cal Football program," the statement begins. "All of these 44 lab-confirmed cases involve people infected with highly contagious COVID-19, which spreads easily unless public health safeguards are used."

Cal's football players are 99% vaccinated, the school has said, and its staffers also have a similarly high vaccination rate. During a press conference on Tuesday evening, Cal Athletic Director Jim Knowlton could not confirm how many of those players were asymptomatic, or at least unaware that they were potentially exhibiting COVID symptoms.