KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An embrace between Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and New England Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore following Monday's game has many talking after Gilmore tested positive for COVID-19.
Gilmore said Wednesday that he had tested positive but remains asymptomatic. The positive test comes two days after the Chiefs defeated the Patriots 26-10 at Arrowhead Stadium.
Doctors who spoke with 41 Action News called the risk to Mahomes "minimal" but present.
"Obviously that encounter with Patrick Mahomes and Stephon Gilman was about eight seconds, eight to nine seconds, and so there’s really minimal risk but the risk is still present," said Dr. Marc Larsen, ER physician and operations sections chief for Saint Luke's COVID response.
Larsen watched the embrace and saw more than just close contact.
"One of the things that I noticed just watching it is Gilmore has his mouthpiece out and it’s in his hand and then he has that on Patrick’s back and then he give him some taps at the end, so there’s some potential exposures, not just respiratory," Larsen said.
But since Gilmore tested negative on Monday — before the game against the Chiefs — Larsen believes Gilmore wasn't as infectious.
"I think that tells me and hopefully gives us some reassurance that his viral load or his ability to pass on the disease was relatively low," Larsen said.
When it comes to the incubation period of the virus, health experts say that just because you tested negative doesn't mean you don't have the virus.
"Typically go back 48 hours before someone has a positive test or before somebody has symptom onset and think of that 48 hours before that as a potential time when they might be shedding virus," Wyandotte County's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Greiner said.
To help figure out where the NFL players have been, they wear contact tracers, which track where the players are and how long they are next to someone.
“In case of an infection, we immediately can see which contact has been made to an individual and then limit the risk to the people that had contact with that person," said Mehdi Bentanfous, CEO of Kinexon North America.
According to a statement from the NFL, there were two confirmed cases of COVID-19 among players and four among other personnel during the week of Sept. 20-26.
The following week (Sept. 27 to Oct. 3), there were 11 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases among players and 15 from other personnel.
According to the NFL, 31 players and 53 other personnel have tested positive since the beginning of the testing in August.
