| Today, the Provincial Health Officer announced new orders based on the rapid increase of COVID infections throughout BC.
Some of those restrictions affect amateur sports and PMHA.
Of immediate importance is the suspension of all amateur sports tournaments starting Monday December 20 through to January 31, 2022. I know this affects many of our teams that had worked to schedule holiday tournaments. Team managers should reach out to the organizers of the tournaments to discuss next steps – but please be kind and patient with them, as this will be a major disruption to them as well. Teams will also need to reach out to hotels if there were bookings to cancel those as well.
For teams that have tournaments scheduled for this weekend – team managers should reach out to the organizers to ensure that their association is comfortable with continuing the tournament. Some may decide to cancel, and that is their right. With the increase in COVID, and the easily transmissible Omicron variant, it is strongly recommended to follow public health guidelines strictly, and try to limit indoor social interactions amongst players and parents.
I know this is disappointing for many of you. It’s disappointing for me – I certainly didn’t expect to be putting out communications like this when I agreed to be President. We are now almost two full years into this pandemic, and for amateur sport it has been a series of some small steps forward followed by what seem to be big steps back. Please know that everyone, from the Provincial Health Officer down, is working hard to ensure that kids can get out and play and have fun.
I wish you all a safe and restful holiday season.
Steve May
President, PMHA. |
