CHICAGO (AFP) – The St. Louis Cardinals’ home game against the Chicago Cubs on Friday has been postponed after an eighth member of the Cardinals tested positive for coronavirus, Major League Baseball confirmed on Friday.
The league said the series opener at Busch Stadium had been shelved in order to allow for additional testing and contact tracing.
The Cardinals’ season has been on hold since July 29 after a slew of positive COVID-19 cases.
Thirteen members of the franchise, including seven players, had previously tested positive for the virus.
The team had resumed training on Wednesday after returning to St. Louis from Milwaukee.
The opening weeks of baseball’s abbreviated 2020 season have been marked by flare-ups of COVID-19, with an outbreak involving the Miami Marlins causing several games to be postponed.
Unlike other professional sports league in North America, which have returned to play inside single-location ”bubbles”, baseball’s season is taking place with teams playing at their home stadiums.
The resumption of the league comes with swathes of the United States struggling to control outbreaks of the virus, which has claimed more than 160,000 lives in the country so far.