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NSWISA Covid-19 Statement
Alison Herring,
MESSAGE TO MEMBERS - 20th August 2020
Dear Members,
This week has been extremely busy and challenging following the communication from Dr Kerry Chant that was received and released on Monday by the NSW Office of Sport (dated Friday 14th August 2020). NSWISA has been working diligently with the sporting sector and NSW Government to work through the recommendations listed in this letter and how they apply to our sport. We are in a unique position in many ways given our reliance on specialised facilities and the fact that competition is in essence safer than training due to the nature and structure of our sport, particularly with the vast majority of competitions being singles events.
Following a meeting with Dr Chant late yesterday, further documentation has been released which deals with ice rinks specifically. We are thankful that NSW Health are committed to working with us and ice rinks have been mentioned specifically in this documentation. The key points relating to our sport that we need to be aware of over the next 6 weeks are:
Community Sport - Activities requiring specialised facilities (e.g. Ice Skating Rinks, Sydney International Regatta Centre, Sydney International Equestrian Centre, Athletics Tracks etc.)
o People may need to travel to specialised venues to participate in their sport. In these cases, people in regional NSW should limit their travel to venues within their region and people in Greater Sydney regions should limit their travel to venues within Greater Sydney.
o Activity organisers should put structures, schedules and booking systems in place to ensure that mixing of participants across regions is minimised.
o Participants should drive directly to the venue, compete, and then return to their homes following the activity. Avoid social gatherings before and after the activity, and car pooling or other shared transport arrangements.
o Participants should not be traveling into Greater Sydney from regional NSW to participate in activities nor traveling across regions in regional NSW.
o If participants are members of a club not located within their local area, they should consider whether it is necessary to participate in club activities at this time.
Most of these items were already covered off in NSWISA's Covid-safe Plan. The only item that is "new" is the restriction relating to people traveling from regional areas into Greater Sydney to participate in competitions. Unfortunately this means that we need to ask non-Sydney based skaters to not compete in the upcoming Club Competitions in Sydney. Apart from that, all competitions will be proceeding as planned over the next four weeks.
We will continue to work with the Clubs to ensure all events are run in adherence with NSWISA's Covid-safe Plan and venue requirements to ensure a safe experience for all participants.
While we believe these restrictions will finish prior to NSW Championships, NSWISA will prepare a contingency plan in the case that Sydney skaters & officials are still unable to travel to Hunter or there are other factors or restrictions that will impact this event. We will provide more advice on this as the future becomes clearer.
We will share any further information as it comes to hand, including any impacts on events being held after the immediate four week plan that has been confirmed.
Yours in skating,
NSWISA
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