On Friday, October 30th, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas
released their guidance around winter sports.
Wyandotte County Issues Recommendation for schools on Winter Sports and Activities
This new guidance on winter sports and activities is not a Health officer Order, but instead a set of recommendations to help reduce the potential for COVID-19 Spread. It is up to the individual school boards to decide whether or not to follow these recommendations.
The primary recommendation from the UG Health Department are as follows:
“Therefore, the UG Public Health Department strongly recommends that you do not allow indoor sports or activities such as basketball or wrestling, based upon the level of community transmission and consequently, the risk involved.”
The secondary recommendation from the UG Health Department outline guidance for school sports and activities that chose to not follow the primary recommendation. Guidance include precautions to help reduce the risk of transmission. These guidelines include:
- Carefully cohort participating students
- Quickly identifying infections and taking steps to prevent spread of the virus to others
- Limiting spectator’s attendance to immediate family only.
- Regularly monitoring for symptoms among students, coaches and staff.
The UG Health Department reiterated that during the winter months, not only do illnesses spread more rapidly, but that outdoor activities are not usually an option and that grouping individuals indoors is dangerous.
(Reminder- the new guidance is a recommendation and leaves the decision around sports on local school boards)