How A Real Life Situation Could Affect the Toronto Maple Leafs

The coronavirus is something the Toronto Maple Leafs and NHL need to take seriously. This coming week will be a big one for them on and off the ice.

As much as people would like to believe that sports occur in a bubble, it does not. Real life creeps in often and players aren’t always ready. There’s a very good chance that the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t prepared for the COVID-19 outbreak.

This coming week, the Maple Leafs will need to consider how they plan to deal with keeping players safe. It may be a tall task.

The potential of a coronavirus pandemic isn’t new news. What is, is the mishandling of containment in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hadn’t implemented stringent enough guidelines in America to ensure that patients exhibiting symptoms of the deadly virus were being tested.

Scary Virus

The United States has been reporting very low numbers for reported cases of COVID-19. As of Feb. 26 they had concluded 445 tests with 14 returning positive, a 3.1% positivity rate.

Compared to other countries such as the South Korea (66,652 concluded tests), UK (7,132 concluded tests), Italy (9,462 concluded tests), and even France (762 concluded tests), America appears to have made their criteria for testing too narrow.

When evaluating the numbers against the country populations, there is a strong belief online that the States hasn’t done enough to find cases.

This assumption is exemplified when considering that U.S. citizens could have to pay $3270 out of pocket for testing, which would dissuade people from getting themselves checked out.

There could be carriers of the coronavirus who didn’t meet the initial criteria for testing. Such was the case in California when the CDC refused a hospital’s request to test a patient. The patient who was on a ventilator was eventually allowed to be tested. That test came back positive. Cases cannot be reported if they haven’t been discovered.

The problem that the CDC faced was that the person found to have contracted novel coronavirus in the state was not been linked to any travel. This means that it was passed to them from someone who has not yet been identified to have COVID-19. For Americans and specifically California residents, this is a big problem.

On Friday, a second case of unknown origin was discovered in California. A whistleblower has provided a possible explanation as to how the state became an area of worry.

It was revealed that untrained and unprotected healthworkers tended to people in quarantine. In the wake of this monumental blunder, the CDC has implemented new testing guidelines. It should hopefully help prevent an even greater spread of the novel virus.

Testing has been a lot more stringent in Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada has shown a far more prepared response to help contain the virus from an outbreak. British Columbia alone has done more testing than the entire United States. Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, they will be leaving Canada and headed to California.

The Leafs next game takes place in San Jose, CA to face the hapless Sharks. It’s an important game for the Buds as they try and firm up a position in the postseason. That trip may have greater implications.

Experts studying COVID-19 still don’t know how exactly it is being transmitted. As such, they suggest taking multiple precautions for prevention and control.

Though it hasn’t been shared publicly, one can only assume that the organization has shared with players and staff ways that they can help avoid exposure. This is important because we often see viruses like the flu devastate a big portion of locker rooms from time to time. Once one player is compromised, everyone is at risk.

The Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn’t be panicked. There isn’t a need to overreact. The affected geographic areas with widespread or sustained community transmission have been China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea.

They have been labelled as “Warning – Level 3” countries. Japan is at “Alert – Level 2” and Hong Kong at “Watch – Level 1”. While it is possible, as previously discussed, that there could be hidden cases throughout the States, at this point USA hasn’t been placed on any travel advisory lists.

The Toronto Maple Leafs players and staff need to just exercise good judgement and be cognizant of the risks so that they can make choices to help keep themselves healthy.

The Leafs preparations must also focus on their defense. The team is without three defenceman, Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, and Cody Ceci. While this gives an opportunity to other players, they need to be ready to step up for the challenge. Every game matters at this time of the year.

The Leafs blueline demonstrated that they were prepared to play a complete game when they matched up with the Florida Panthers on Thursday. The apathy that the Leafs had recently shown was nowhere to be found. Instead, it looked like a Toronto team witi a new purpose took to the ice.

We shall see how Toronto plays when they arrive in California. Hopefully, they’re able to put the risks out of mind between the whistles and come away with another important win.