The PBA approved Saturday additional guidelines that will be implemented as part of the league’s plan to resume practices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said the league's Board of Governors agreed to have teams cover the hospital bills in the event some of their players test positive for the virus during training.
Also agreed on is the upgrade of testing procedures to swabbing instead of the earlier plan by PBA to have both rapid and swab tests.
Testing will be done in the laboratories of San Miguel Corporation, though teams are required to shoulder the costs.
The decision came a day after Marcial met with coaches and team managers to explain the protocols for the planned return to training later this month.
While all coaches welcomed the guidelines as a “doable” way of possibly preventing the spread of the virus, some also gave suggestions which Marcial relayed during the board meeting.
Meanwhile, the league plans to write another letter to the Inter-Agency Task Force next month for the possibility of allowing scrimmages.
Under the current guidelines approved by the IATF, teams will have to divide practices into batches of five people each under General Community Quarantine and 10 each under Modified General Community Quarantine.