This season, all ACC men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes, coaches, and staff wore the devices while inside team facilities. Student-athletes also had the SafeTags sewn into jerseys or tucked into socks for in-game usage. The SafeTags measure the proximity between users to provide school medical officials accurate contact tracing data when an individual tests positive for the virus. To date, the technology has identified several high-risk close contacts of a positive case within the ACC. These high-risk contacts were quarantined and later tested positive, thus limiting the spread of the virus.
“Having all of our teams use the KINEXON technology throughout the regular-season proved to be significantly effective in the continued efforts to keep our student-athletes, coaches and programs healthy and safe,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. “As we approach the ACC Tournaments, we’re pleased to expand the partnership with KINEXON and feel it will only enhance our protocols.”
Prior to the pandemic, KINEXON established itself as a world-leader in sports performance technology and analytics. When the sporting world shut down in March of 2020, the company pivoted its award-winning technology to address the challenge of mitigating the spread of the virus. Instead of tracking movement, the SafeTags measure the distance and duration of a contact and cannot track a person’s physical location to ensure user privacy. To date, KINEXON SafeZone has been used to help several professional sports leagues around the world safely complete seasons amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While it is impossible to completely reduce the risk of exposure to the virus to zero, KINEXON SafeZone has proven that it is the most effective solution at minimizing the possibility of large outbreaks,” said KINEXON Executive Vice President Jim Garofalo. “By expanding the use of this technology to its conference tournaments, the ACC is making another strong commitment not only to the health and safety of its men’s and women’s basketball programs, but also to the community at large.”
“Effective contact tracing is one of the best tools we have to prevent transmission” said Dr. Christina Mack. “The KINEXON device provides a key starting point to understand interactions between individuals, and assess risk of transmission. Evaluation of KINEXON data can also help communities improve protocols and reduce close interactions to prevent transmission when a case occurs”
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ABOUT KINEXON
ABOUT THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE
The Atlantic Coast Conference, now in its 68th year of competition and 15 members strong, has long enjoyed the reputation as one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate conferences in the nation. ACC members Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest continue to build upon the cornerstones on which the league was founded in 1953 with a consistent balance of academics, athletics and integrity. The ACC currently sponsors 27 NCAA sports – 14 for women and 13 for men – with member institutions located in 10 states. In August 2019, ESPN and the ACC partnered to launch ACC Network (ACCN), a 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports and league-wide original programming. For more information, visit theACC.com and follow @theACC on Twitter and on Facebook (facebook.com/theACC).
