PHOENIX (AP) -- Major League Baseball's COVID-19 testing sweep appears to be having some success even as large swaths of the United States continue to struggle with containing the fast-spreading virus.
MLB and the players' union released statistics on Friday saying six of 10,548 samples were new positives in the week ending Thursday, a rate of 0.05%. In addition to five players, one staff member tested positive.
That's fairly good news for a sport that's trying to begin its abbreviated 60-game schedule next week. But players and coaches are also aware that the optics of baseball's relative testing success - especially in hard-hit states like Arizona, California, Texas and Florida - might not be ideal considering demand for tests has sometimes been higher than the supply for the average person.