American football player tests positive for COVID-19

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - A player in the U.S. national football league tested positive for the new coronavirus late Wednesday.

An NFL franchise, Los Angeles Rams confirmed on its website that center Brian Allen caught COVID-19 three weeks ago as the 24-year-old showed mild symptoms.

The Rams added that now he is "feeling better".

Allen said that he first lost his sense of smell and then taste.

"Then I got periodic sore throats. I got really fatigued, my throat would start burning, everything felt different than every other flu I've had," the American player added.

The 2020 NFL regular season is expected to begin in September as planned, the organizers said last month.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit top-tier basketball and ice hockey leagues in the U.S. as the NBA and the NHL had to pause seasons to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The death toll in the U.S. from the virus crossed the 30,000 mark late Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The university's running tally counted nearly 640,000 cases and 53,000 recoveries.

The novel coronavirus has spread to at least 185 countries and regions since emerging in China last December, with the U.S. and Europe now the hardest-hit areas.

More than 2.06 million cases have been reported worldwide. The death toll is over 137,100 and some 517,000 people have recovered.