Public Health Grey Bruce has some strong recommendations for organized sports.
It has not made a recommendation to stop holding sports games.
A release says, “We all need to do our best to try to keep some form of the organized sport available to youth as long as safely possible for both the physical and mental health of the youth and their families.”
Public Health says in a release the variants that are circulating, whether Delta or Omicron (not yet been confirmed by lab at this point in Grey Bruce), are highly transmissible and able to generate a high number of cases in a matter of days.
The Health Unit says, “Although we have the capacity to manage the high number of cases and the over 1000 close contacts currently, we need your continued vigilance over the coming few days. We are cautiously optimistic we collectively can provide Grey Bruce with safe holidays.”
The Health Unit’s recommendations to young adults participating in sports are :
Adhering to physical distancing recommendations on the bench and in the stands
Lowering capacity limits in player and spectator areas
Limiting use of communal spaces outside of play, like change rooms or meeting areas
Preventing the following social activity:
Attending team parties and gatherings before or after the game (teammates are friends);
Commuting, carpooling and bussing to and from games with members outside of one’s household;
Using and socializing in dressing rooms without following safety precautions;
Traveling to and time spent in areas of higher rates of COVID-19 for the purposes of games and tournaments
Public Health says, at this point in time, the results of ongoing investigations and risk assessments of different sectors confirm the following trends:
“The majority of the recent cases in students are actually associated with social activities before and after organized sports. Those activities include, but are not limited to:
Attending team parties and gatherings before or after the game (teammates are friends);
Commuting, carpooling and bussing to and from games with members outside of one’s household;
Using dressing rooms and socializing in dressing rooms without following safety precautions;
Traveling to and time spent in areas of higher rates of COVID-19 for the purposes of games and tournaments.”
Public Health says the exception to the above is the increase in risk of transmission associated with certain sports, where unprotected, face-to-face contact is likely (basketball), where the Public Health transmission likely happened in both the game and the above social activity.
They say results confirm transmission within the school setting remains, “very low especially in the class setting.”
Public Health says there is no evidence at this time of transmission in places like malls, big box stores or grocery stores or the high impact sectors such as long-term care, retirement homes, or hospitals.
