Cardinals are back in St. Louis; addressing rumors of how COVID-19 outbreak started

ST. LOUIS, Mo (KMIZ)

The St. Louis Cardinals made it back to Busch Stadium on Wednesday evening, following a six-day quarantine in Milwaukee.

On Tuesday, the MLB reported that the Cardinals had no additional positive cases of COVID-19 and were cleared to return home.

The ball club stands at 13 cases of COVID-19, seven of which were in players.

Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said, while he is happy to be home, his thought are with the players and staff that are still dealing with the outbreak.

“There's concern and prayers for our guys and the people that have been impacted by it and making sure—doing what we can to support them from a distance and emotionally be there for them. Clearly, take care of them the best we can," he said.

The birds' skipper also addressed rumors of how the outbreak got started in the clubhouse.

“I can’t say that everybody was all responsible at every single wake and turn, but I can say this is a responsible group. Not anybody in our group going out and doing anything," he said. "I think reports to that are pretty irresponsible quite honestly.” 

Shildt said both he and the MLB believe that the outbreak began with an asymptomatic outsider bringing it inside the club and infecting the team.

St. Louis said it will continue strict COVID-19 safety precautions.

"As far as protocols go, we'll continue to be diligent," Shildt said. "Again, this is a virus that almost five million people have in our country and there's a reason the world's shut down. This thing is stealthy and this thing moves quick and it is clearly nasty."

The Cardinals are still set to host the Chicago Cubs on Friday.