Public Health is asking sports organizations to submit Return to Play plans that Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says will look different from those submitted last year thanks to variants of concern now circulating throughout the country.
The most recent outbreak of the UK variant in the metro area spread even more quickly once it got into the school and sporting community.
Dr. Fitzgerald says the province was lucky that the variant was caught early before it spread even further.
She acknowledged the disappointment and frustration being expressed in the province’s sports community at yesterday’s COVID briefing, but says the variants change everything.
(Photo courtesy Paradise Soccer Club.)
Variants are quickly becoming the dominant strain, and changing the epidemiology across the country, according to Fitzgerald. “There are no guarantees when it comes to this virus,” she says and the most important thing is to keep contacts low.
That’s why a return to sports will depend not only on the epidemiology in Newfoundland and Labrador, but outside the province as well according to Fitzgerald.
“We cannot ignore the reality that group activities, including team sports, result in multiple contacts for each individual,” says Fitzgerald, and that is compounded by the interaction of different teams and individuals involved in multiple team sports and activities.
