麻豆社区

The Yukon COVID Response Team held a Zoom meeting with the principle sports and recreation organizations in Whitehorse last Friday. The meeting was held to collectively address concerns of the various organizations regarding COVID-19 protocols and how to deal with ongoing and upcoming events in the area. It was intended to ease anxiety and provide information to make informed decisions regarding COVID-19 protocol.

Michael Hougen, policy analyst- COVID 19, facilitated the meeting, and Shannon Ryan, policy analyst, both of the Yukon government鈥檚 Department of Health and Social Services COVID Response Team, answered questions from the participants.

During the meeting, Ryan said vaccination is the key.

鈥淒on鈥檛 allow people to come sick.鈥�, said Ryan. 鈥淒on鈥檛 allow your coaches to coach sick, don鈥檛 allow your players to come if they鈥檙e sick, and if anyone has symptoms, we highly highly highly recommend they get tested. Because we have community spread, we want anyone to go in and get tested.鈥�

鈥淟et鈥檚 keep playing, but playing safely.鈥漅yan added.

Don White, Director and Head Coach of Athletics Yukon, participated in the meeting. He said what came out of the meeting for him is that it鈥檚 pretty well status quo for now.

鈥淧retty much what I was expecting. We鈥檙e pretty much following the protocol the way it was laid out before, trying to match the stuff that鈥檚 coming out of the Yukon and trying to match what we鈥檙e being asked to do from Athletics Canada. The thing that they鈥檙e really pushing for is get vaccinated, keep the groups small, keep active and keep doing what we鈥檙e doing. Because we鈥檙e doing everything outside, it鈥檚 not such a big issue. The big thing was trying to follow the Athletics Canada protocol, where we had to keep a hand written documentation of everybody that was going to be there, including all the waivers and all the attestations.鈥�

鈥淧aula Pasquale (Boreal Adventures Race Association) asked the one question about the trail marathon. They鈥檝e got a kill date in mind, and they wanted to know if there was anything that they should be aware of. Basically, there鈥檚 nothing. We鈥檙e already maxed out at the hospital, the numbers are climbing鈥�.we鈥檝e got the people that are in helping out with medical and that kind of thing. The hope is that things will start to stabilize and decline again. It鈥檚 just a matter of keeping up with the safe six and restricting numbers and keeping it outside. The one thing they were quite concerned about was the people who aren鈥檛 vaccinated yet. So whether that鈥檚 age groups or vulnerabilities from various communities, that kind of thing. But they really pushed the don鈥檛 socialize鈥�when you鈥檙e there don鈥檛 socialize afterwards. Try to keep it minimal and if you鈥檙e going to end up doing anything, adhere to all the guidelines 鈥�that are out there.鈥�

When asked if there appears to be hope on the horizon, White replied, 鈥淣o, not really. They said the big thing is that we鈥檙e in community transmission and while we鈥檝e been in the pandemic for over a year, this is really the first big hit that the Yukon has gone and suffered through. So it鈥檚 just a matter of basically being on our guard, making sure that we keep track of what鈥檚 going on, that we keep the distances, contact, and all the rest of it minimal. They basically enforced the point that if we鈥檙e basically dealing with the same people all the time it鈥檚 not such a big deal, it鈥檚 more important if we start getting mixtures of people coming in. With Athletics, we tend to get a certain group of people who come out on Tuesdays, and another group that come out on Thursdays, but as I was saying, the virtual stuff that we鈥檝e done in the past, people are doing that again and it鈥檚 not that big a deal.

鈥淭he thing that would kind of concern us most is either when we鈥檙e coaching, and we don鈥檛 have that many kids coming out to be coached right now, none of the seniors or the 55+ games are coming out at this point, and the numbers that we;re getting on Tuesday and Thursday nights are all quite manageable and within the limits that the CMOH and the (COVID) group have set.鈥�

Some news about potential funding did come out of the meeting. White says, 鈥淢ost of it was status quo, keep on doing what you鈥檙e doing. The things that were interesting were the business about new funding that is coming down the pipe that Maria (Cairns, YG Sport and Recreation Branch Acting Director mentioned). Other than that, it鈥檚 just status quo-try and keep safe.

Athletics Yukon recently announced on Facebook on July 5 that they would be holding off on in-person events for two weeks. White says the recent announcement by Dr. Brendan Henley influenced the group鈥檚 decision.As for the reaction to the decision, White says people are used to doing their sport virtually anyway.

As fas as what it would take to allow in-person events again, White says 鈥淏asically for the COVID group to advise us that the latest outbreak is on the down low. That things have improved to the point where they feel free to let the gathering sizes increase. We鈥檙e hoping it happens before the first of August.鈥�

Stacy Lewis, a director on the board of Sport Yukon and secretary of Tennis Yukon, also participated in the meeting.

She outlines the purpose of the meeting.

鈥淭he COVID Response Team has been receiving so many questions鈥�so they decided to be more efficient and try to talk to everybody at once, which was great. So they put out an invitation a couple of days ago for a meeting, saying to all sports groups, 鈥業f you have any questions about holding events, or even holding your regular practices, games鈥�your regular season鈥�join this meeting and ask your questions.鈥�

Lewis says things have changed a lot in the last few months.

鈥淲e all made our plans in a different context. We all made our plans in March, April, May when we had no cases. And all of a sudden here we are in July with an outbreak, and an outbreak among young people, which it鈥檚鈥�got it鈥檚 own complications to it.鈥�

Lewis did have a question for the COVID Response Team.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a group where we run a facility but we don鈥檛 control how and when people come. We run the courts, and we have events and lessons, and we control those times, but 90 percent of the time it鈥檚 just players coming, and so I was really concerned that鈥�we have it set up, we have rules, you have to sign the rules, you have to sign the waiver, but you are at the end of the day leaving it up to people on the honour system, that they don鈥檛 come to the courts when they鈥檙e sick, that they don鈥檛 share a water bottle with there friends. Compared to other sports that sort of occur in a more organized way, with a team arriving at a certain time and a team leaving at a certain time, and you鈥檙e trying to kind of keep people managing them more directly. We鈥檙e a non-profit organization. We can鈥檛 afford to have anyone sitting there, even if that was the preferred route of control. We would just have to close. We couldn鈥檛 do that.鈥�

The general consensus seemed to be that the sports and rec organizations are only responsible for their own players and coaches when it comes to record-keeping for contact tracing.

Lewis was encouraged by the response from the YG team.

鈥淭he CMOH and the COVID Response team, they don鈥檛 want to stop people from doing activities. If anything, they鈥檙e encouraging people, just because it鈥檚 so much healthier for everyone, physically and mentally, if they can keep being active. They really want to see activities continue. They don鈥檛 want to be having people shut down. But it has to be safe too.鈥�

One of the topics that came up was intergenerational events, for example those mixing elderly people with unvaccinated youth.

Lewis says, 鈥淭here are people who have multigenerational aspects to their activity. So you have older people who may or may not be vaccinated. You have under 12s, who you know are not vaccinated, cause they can鈥檛 be yet. She (Shannon Ryan) basically said,鈥橳hat鈥檚 a bad idea. Try not to do that.鈥� There were many questions about team sports. The team arrives鈥�.and they play, but then they all leave together. Where do they go and what do they do? At that point, you鈥檙e not in charge of them. You just have to hope that they鈥�follow the rules. You鈥檙e trying to reduce gatherings. That鈥檚 before the activity and after the activity鈥�but then there鈥檚 also spectators. We鈥檙e actually at a point now of really discouraging spectators of anything.

鈥淎nd then there were people like the Yukon trail people who had a date identified as a go no go date, do you have any sort of benchmarks we can use? She wasn鈥檛 really keen on that, because鈥�if there鈥檚 a 100 cases, but they鈥檙e all teenagers, and the event鈥檚 going to be all vaccinated adults, there鈥檚 no reason to cancel the event. She (Ryan) was very reluctant about giving them any hard numbers.鈥�

Was Lewis satisfied with the meeting?

鈥淚 certainly feel like the sport and rec community got some more specific information. Definitely.鈥�

Lewis added that there was an excellent turnout for the meeting. 35 people participated in it via Zoom.

鈥淚t was a fantastic turnout. That represents quite a lot of people. There could easily be a couple hundred people with each of those groups.

鈥淐ertainly from our perspective, last summer and this summer are black and white. Last summer was so like鈥�.don鈥檛 do this, you can鈥檛 do that, this is canceled, that is canceled, and this summer there鈥檚 definitely a feeling of more latitude to do stuff, and we don鈥檛 want to lose that.鈥�

The Yukon River Trail Marathon is scheduled to run, literally, on Sunday, August 1. It鈥檚 one of the events that could be affected by the current COVID protocols, and as such, was a topic at the meeting. Ken Sylvestre is the treasurer for the Boreal Adventures Race Association, the organization holding the event. According to Sylvestre, July 18th is the day when a decision will be made as to whether the race goes ahead. Sylvestre agreed that it would be dependant on the situation with the outbreak. 鈥淚 think so.We鈥檙e keen on holding the event, but there might be some circumstances under which it would be too risky.鈥�

And if the situation stays the same?

鈥淭he same or less, we鈥檙e hoping we can hold it.鈥� replied Sylvestre.

鈥淭here was a little bit of touching on things like situation at the hospital鈥�they鈥檙e challenged a little bit right now, so that would be a 鈥�probably a factor. It鈥檚 an unknown situation for everyone I guess. We really did want to hold it. We did a fairly extensive plan that was reviewed by the COVID team. We are planning on keeping everybody as distanced as possible, low contact, no gathering at the finish line, limiting people in Rotary park, and spacing out the start.

鈥淲e are hoping to be positive about it, but we certainly do not want to put people in danger. I do think we have quite a few safety protocols in place, so we鈥檙e really hoping that can lead us to holding a safe event. It鈥檚 a challenging year. 鈥�