Utah Jazz guard Joe Ingles goes past Minnesota Timberwolves defenders during an NBA game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021.
Utah Jazz guard Joe Ingles drives past Minnesota Timberwolves defenders during an NBA game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. Ingles has reportedly entered COVID protocols. | Shafkat Anowar, Deseret News

As COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the NBA, causing many teams to have to sign multiple replacement players, the Utah Jazz remained unscathed. In fact, they became the last team to not be affected by the barrage.

But the surge has finally hit the team.

Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that wing Joe Ingles has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols, and the Jazz confirmed it about 90 minutes later.

Last week, according to Wojnarowski and his colleague Baxter Holmes, the league updated its protocols for asymptomatic and vaccinated players to be able to return to play after testing positive (it is not known what Ingles’ current status is).

Under the new protocols, players can return after five days if their cycle threshold levels (a metric used to help determine how infectious a person could be) are above 30, Wojnarowski and Holmes reported (the higher the CT level the better).

In 36 games this season, Ingles is averaging 7.6 points, 3.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per contest.



Utah Jazz reportedly finally hit by COVID-19 again
Source: Gabriella Pinoys