Orioles general manager and executive vice president Mike Elias said on Tuesday the organization will continue its policy of not publicly disclosing positive COVID-19 test results, citing potential inconsistencies in the testing and the danger of false positives, among other concerns.

Making his first public comments since Summer Camp opened Friday, Elias called the occurrence of positive tests “a private health matter,” saying the organization will give any individuals who do test positive the opportunity to discuss their experience publicly if they wish. Elias spoke three days after manager Brandon Hyde said he’d been directed not to discuss any positive tests or whether or not any players had tested positive during intake screening.

“Part of the nature of this testing is there are going to be false positive readings,” Elias said. “It can take some time to find out if they are false positives. Any individual who gets a positive, whether it’s a true positive or a false positive, may be out for some time. Given that fact and also that people may be away waiting for their test results, if there is some retesting that needs to be done or a slight delay in the results coming in, or perhaps they’ve been asked to be part of a quarantine as part of a contact trace, we feel it’s not our place to attempt to provide a play-by-play or minute-by-minute update on the status of such individuals. I think there is a lot you will be able to infer once the season goes on.”

Elias added that the Orioles “are going to leave it up to the players to talk about the experience themselves whether they want to or not.” Asked whether the team would provide information in-season on any players added to the COVID-19 specific injured list, he said, “I think there is going to be a lot you are going to be able to infer based on roster moves. Anybody following the league closely will be able to infer, and that just is what it is.”

MLB announced on Friday that 38 of 3,185 tests conducted in the league’s initial wave of intake screening testing came back positive, resulting in a 1.2 percent positivity rate. Nineteen clubs had one or more individual test positive, per the league. Teams are allowed but not required to say whether they’ve had a positive test, but all are required to receive a player’s consent before publicly revealing his name.

MLB protocol calls for players and on-field staff to be tested every other day. Players who test positive must test negative twice separated by more than 24 hours before being cleared to resume activity. While some teams have postponed workouts due to delays in receiving test results, the Orioles have experienced no such issues.

So far outfielders Dwight Smith Jr. and Anthony Santander are the only members of the Orioles' 45-man player pool yet to appear in workouts, though it is unclear whether or not they have tested positive. The organization has not addressed their absence.

“That’s the way we’re handling it,” Elias said. “I understand it’s not perfect. But I think for all those reasons it’s the best approach and will give those players and staff members the best measure of privacy and the luxury of time for their individual situations to play out.”

Asked if they’ve considered disclosing simply whether positive tests have occurred or not without naming individuals specifically, Elias said, “It’s something we’re still thinking about. I think we want to ease our way into this a little bit, because sometimes it's not a binary outcome when there is an initial test and someone might be back two days afterwards and for some it might be weeks. I think we want to gather more experience with this before we start citing numbers.”

Elias added: “I recognize it’s a little fuzzy and frustrating at times that the information is not real precise, but it’s the nature of this season and the way we are forced to approach it, that there will be some vagaries about the comings and goings of players in these circumstances.

"I don’t think there is any perfect way or appropriate way to perfectly handle this situation. We don’t like to be cagey or without info, but this is a private medical matter for these individual people and I don’t think it’s in anybody’s best interest to get out in front of it, mislabel something and have to unwind that later for whatever reason. There is a lot going on here right now, but eventually things will become clear but that’s the way our organization is approaching this.”