The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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The Cleveland Cavaliers will be allowed roughly 2,000 fans at home games after being granted a state variance.
The NBA team had been permitted only 300 fans inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse due to COVID-19 restrictions. The team made a formal request last month to the Ohio Department of Health, which approved 10% of capacity in the 19,000-seat downtown arena.
Only some season-ticket holders and players’ family members and guests had been at Cleveland’s first two games.
The Cavs are 3-0 for the first time since 2016. After hosting New York on Tuesday night, they’ll play six consecutive road games before returning to Cleveland to host the Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 11, when the new fan limit will take effect.
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The SMU women’s basketball team has decided not to play the remainder of its 2020-21 season, with players opting out because of health and safety concerns surrounding COVID-19.
The school said in a statement that while the players agreed that all possible steps and precautions had been taken to keep them healthy and safe, they decided “that the totality of the circumstances was resulting in an in-season experience that they did not wish to prolong.”
Athletic director Rick Hart said it was a difficult decision for the players to make, and that the school supported them.
The women’s basketball team was 0-6 overall after losing its first two American Athletic Conference games.
Other SMU programs will continue to compete as scheduled.
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The NFL says there were 21 new confirmed positive tests among players and 37 new confirmed positives among other personnel in the league's latest round of testing for COVID-19.
During a weeklong period that ended Saturday, the NFL said 16,180 tests were administered to 2,364 players and 24,867 tests were given to 4,421 personnel.
The results bring the totals since the beginning of August to 222 players and 396 other personnel who were confirmed positive cases out of approximately 881,510 tests administered.
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