New on Sports Illustrated: Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy Hopes to Return to Football Facilities on May 1

Gundy hopes tests for the coronavirus will be available in a few weeks to clear players and employees to return.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said he is looking to return to the program's football facilities on May 1 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, Gundy said he hopes tests will be available in three or four weeks so employees and players can be cleared to gather together.

"How fast that can happen based on the tests that are available, I can't say right now, but that's the plan," Gundy said,

per ESPN's Heather Dinich. "We have to have a plan, and the plan right now is for them to start on May 1. It might get backed up two weeks. I don't know, I can't make that call, but if it does, we'll start with the employees of this company, the ones that come in this building. Then we'll bring the players in, and slowly but surely we'll test them all in."

Professional and college sports are shut down right now amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and no date has been set for when college football practice can begin. Last month, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the conference would monitor the pandemic to decide if the upcoming football season should be delayed. He also acknowledged that games could be played without fans this fall.

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the nation, health experts have not set a timeline for when people can resume going to work or gathering in large crowds. 

Gundy, who has been working remotely from home, stressed to reporters that he thinks it's important for people to return to work.

"We've got to go back to work. We've got to get these guys back in here. ... From what I read, the healthy people can fight this, the antibodies make it better," he said. "They're doing some blood transplants now with the people that have already gotten the disease, that has gotten over it that have the antibodies that can fight it. There's a lot of people who can figure this out. May 1's our goal. Don't know if it will happen. Players will come in after that."

The coach added the program would quarantine people who contract the coronavirus and help them get treatment. Gundy also suggested that older employees or ones with underlying conditions might not return right away.

"Maybe they don't come back," he said, "but the majority of people in this building who are healthy ... and certainly the 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-, 22-year-olds that are healthy, the so-called medical people saying the herd of healthy people that have the antibodies may be built up and can fight this? We all need to go back to work.

"I'm not taking away from the danger of people getting sick. You have the virus, stay healthy, try to do what we can to help people that are sick. And we're losing lives, which is just terrible. The second part of it is that we still have to schedule and continue to move forward as life goes on and help those people."