'Days of Our Lives' Suspends Production After Positive COVID-19 Test

Production on Days of Our Lives has been suspended for two weeks after a member of the production team tested positive for the coronavirus. Filming will resume before the end of the month, and the airing of new episodes on NBC will not be disrupted. Days of Our Lives resumed production on Sept. 1, later than other productions being filmed in California because new shows were produced earlier in the year to keep fresh episodes airing through early October.

Corday Productions, which produces Days of Our Lives with Sony Pictures TV, sent an email to cast, crew, and production staff about the positive test on Monday, reports Deadline. Production will resume on Oct. 26 The person's positive test came up during the production's strict testing plans and is now in isolation. Contact tracing was also completed, and others who were in close contact with the individual will quarantine for 14 days. There will also be deep cleaning and disinfecting of the production offices and sets used.

Days stopped filming in mid-March along with the rest of the Hollywood industry, but filming did not restart until Sept. 1, weeks after other television shows started filming again. Unlike the other remaining daytime soaps, Days had produced enough new episodes to keep new ones airing through early October. Days is not the first production forced to shut down for two weeks, as ABC's For Life and NBC's Chicago Med also had to pause filming.

Days was renewed for a record 56th season earlier this year and is undergoing significant cast changes. Victoria Konefal, Kristian Alfonso, Greg Vaughan, Casey Moss, Chandler Massey, Freddie Smith, and Galen Gering are all leaving the show. The biggest departure is Alfonso, who spent almost four decades on the show. Alfonso shared photos from her last scenes on Friday.

In a new interview with Glamour, Alfonso said her decision to leave the show came after she learned the writers were considering writing out Alfonso's character Hope, then bringing her back four to five months later. When executive producer Ken Corday told her this, she decided ti was time to start a "new chapter," she explained.

Alfonso said her heart sank, and she was not expecting to hear that, but she was relieved. "After I hung up, I took a deep breath and thought, Okay, I don't have to learn that next script," she said. "It was a big feeling. But in the end, by allowing [director Albert Alarr and writer Ron Carlivati] to take me off-canvas, [Ken] had actually given me a great gift. I have no hard feelings."