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‘Dancing with the Stars’ reports multiple cases of COVID-19 following premiere

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ABC

Dancing wasn’t the only thing that broke out at Monday’s Dancing with the Stars season 31 premiere: at least four cases of COVID-19 were reported among the show’s crew following its debut on Disney+.

A DWTS spokesperson told Deadline that all four crew members work in โ€œcompletely different departments that do not have in-person contact with each other, based on our pod system.โ€

โ€œContact tracing was immediately conducted,โ€ the spokesperson continued. โ€œAll close contacts were notified and put on an increased testing cadence” and that “no close contact of the four positive production employees has since tested positive.โ€

The spokesperson adds that the โ€œentire set has been disinfected as an extra precaution,” and the majority of the show’s employees — which totals more than 300 — were asked to work from home.โ€

Earlier reports put the number of positive cases at more than a dozen, but the spokesperson claims that number was incorrect.

The show was cleared by the Department of Public Health to continue production โ€œbased on our strict safety protocols,โ€ the spokesperson added.

Dancing with the Stars returns next Monday at 8 p.m. ET on Disney+

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