Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart announced he has recovered from coronavirus after testing positive two weeks ago.
On March 19, the Celtics confirmed Smart had contracted COVID-19—the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus—but the 26-year-old has since been given the all-clear by the Massachusetts Department of Health before the weekend.
“Corona Free as of two days ago,” Smart tweeted on Sunday night. “Thanks for everyone’s thoughts and prayers and I’m doing the same for everyone that’s been effected by this. Stay safe and stay together- apart! Much love!”
When the NBA suspended the season on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert became the first player to test positive for coronavirus, the Celtics were in Milwaukee ahead of their game against the Bucks scheduled for the following night.
Boston had faced the Jazz a week earlier and flew home from Milwaukee, where players self-quarantined and were subsequently tested.
Smart, who is averaging 13.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists so far this season, joins Gobert and Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell as the players to have recovered from the virus.
The two were officially cleared by the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) last week, the Jazz said in a statement released on Friday. “The UDOH has determined that all Jazz players and staff, including two who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, no longer pose a risk of infection to others,” the team said.
Mitchell had been in quarantine since testing positive for COVID-19. However, he was asymptomatic and showed no sign of the virus and appeared remotely on Good Morning America on March 16.
Detroit Pistons forward Christian Wood, who faced the Jazz on March 7 and guarded Gobert, has also recovered. Wood tested positive a week after the game, but according to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania he was cleared from coronavirus last week.
Another nine NBA players or team members have tested positive to COVID-19 since Gobert.
Two weeks ago, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets both announced members of their organizations had tested positive for COVID-19, but neither team confirmed whether any of their players were affected.
On the same day, two Los Angeles Lakers players were also confirmed to have tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, Kevin Durant is one of four Brooklyn Nets to have also contracted the virus.
This graphic provided by Statista shows the spread of the more than 143,000 cases of coronavirus reported in the U.S.—the highest tally of any country—as of Monday morning.
This map provided by Statista shows the spread of coronavirus across the U.S. as of March 30. StatistaMore than 2,500 deaths have been recorded in the U.S. and nearly 5,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the outbreak using combined data sources.
Over 34,000 people have died globally since the outbreak of coronavirus began in Wuhan, a city located in China’s central Hubei province, late last year. There are over 741,000 cases globally, with more than 156,000 people recovered from the infection.
