Based on recommendations from infectious disease and health professionals, the NBA is planning to follow through on limiting access to locker rooms amid the coronavirus outbreak, allowing only players and essential team personnel to be present, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst report.
Essential team personnel includes coaches, general managers, and basketball and public relations staff, Wojnarowski adds.
Additionally, teams are instructed to separate players from the press by six-to-eight feet during media availability sessions, which will be held outside locker rooms.
The NBA becomes the second major North American sports league to enact such measures after National Hockey League teams began barring media members from entering locker rooms this past weekend. Major League Baseball is also set to join the NBA and NHL in this pursuit, ESPN's Jeff Passan reports.
Further plans to address the coronavirus epidemic will be discussed in a conference call with NBA team owners on Wednesday, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe and Wojnarowski.
The idea of playing games without fans in attendance - a practice that's been implemented for select soccer games in Europe - has also reportedly been explored.
COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide and has infected nearly 110,000 people as of Monday, according to data provided by the World Health Organization.
