Wednesday’s announcement from the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Heath Dr. Janice Fitzgerald that Newfoundland and Labrador is moving to Alert Level 2 has essentially moved sport and recreation back to the point of where it was before the COVID-19 variant outbreak earlier this year.
With Fitzgerald revealing the entire province will be at Alert Level 2 as of Saturday, organized sports will be permitted to resume with skills, drills and practices.
There will not be regular head-to-head team competition as of yet, only intrasquad play. The plan is for competition at inter-league or regional levels to eventually follow.
The latter will come after provincial sport organizations do as they’ve done in the past and submit Return to Play proposals to Sport NL and the provincial government.
Fitzgerald says once those plans are approved, it’s likely regional competition would resume. As of now, provincial tournaments wouldn’t be permitted, but Fitzgerald did hold out the possibility they could get the go-ahead at some point during Level 2.
As for mask-wearing and sports, Fitzgerald says people should use their own discretion about whether — or at which point, during physical activity — masks are removed. Her recommendation is that masks be worn at all times in indoor venues and/or where physical distancing is not possible, including during low-impact physical activity.
She is also recommending athletes and players on teams spend only as much time in dressing rooms as absolutely necessary and to arrive at competition/practice sites wearing as much of their sports equipment and uniforms as possible.
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor.
