Organized sports are typically part of promoting mental, physical and social health for kids, but the pandemic is requiring parents and sports organizations to weigh the risks and benefits of play.
The recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Ottawa and other hotspots across the province is raising questions about the risks of any activity that involves gathering. But, some experts say, with precautions in place, team sports might be a relatively safe way to get exercise and improve psychological health.
Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and an associate professor of health sciences at the University of Ottawa, said parents should consider how COVID-19 spreads when assessing the risk.
Specifically, they should consider distance between participants, outdoors being safer than indoors, avoiding face-to-face exposure and evaluating the duration and intensity of contact.
If we get past the anticipated peak in October, November and if we’re doing better then — then I’d reassess the risk.– Raywat Deonandan, University of Ottawa associate professor
“I’d be confident sending my child to an outdoor sport, that does not involve physical contact,” Deonandan said. “Soccer comes to mind … I’d be really confident having my child play tennis or other kind of racquet sports.”
As for hockey and ringette, Deonandan said hockey arenas are big enough that the virus could dissipate in a similar way to being outdoors, as long as there’s no contact and players get changed at home.
Hockey goalie Jameson Kaine gets changed in physical distancing pods set up outside the Burnaby Winter Club in Burnaby, B.C., May 14, 2020. Some experts say, with precautions in place, team sports might be a relatively safe way to get exercise and improve psychological health during the pandemic. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
He said sports like wrestling or contact football, where individual players may be locked together face-to-face, pose a higher risk.
Get active — 2 metres apart
Ian Janssen, a professor of kinesiology and public health at Queen’s University, said it’s important for children to get active.
“Being active, sitting less and getting out of the house — those are very good things in terms of helping you cope with the mental health challenges of COVID[-19],” he said.
He said long-distance running would likely be the safest activity to avoid viral transmission, but with children especially it’s important for them to want to stay engaged.
“You can tell a 12-year-old to go out and run for five kilometres, how many are going to want to do that? Not a lot,” he said.
Janssen said his daughter now has a taped-off area to ensure two metres of distance when she participates in dance. He said his son’s swim club has implemented distancing measures within the pool, including prohibiting passing and designated starting and stopping points.
Benefit to have ‘normalcy in their life’
Marcia Morris, executive director of the Ottawa Sport Council, says member organizations have seen a dip in registration for the fall, but a core group of people have signed up because of what their sport means to them.
“They’re not going to restaurants, they’re not going to bars, they’re not going to movie theatres, they’re not going out, but the one thing they are prioritizing is going to do their sport,” Morris said.
Marcia Morris says organizations like the Rideau Canoe Club have changed how they work to make their activities safer, including sanitizing and distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Andrew Lee/CBC News)
“Because of the physical and mental benefit, but also the ability to connect and have some normalcy in their life.”
Morris said the council’s 70 member organizations contributed to developing a resource in July to allow for a safe return— including protocols for self-screening, cleaning and distancing — from canoeing to rugby and hockey.
Some of those adaptations mean reducing the number of players participating at a time or focusing on “skills and drills” rather than competition, she said.
Epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan says sports that maintain distance between players are the safest during the COVID-19 pandemic, while those that include close physical contact should be avoided. 1:00
Morris said the sport council has not heard of any such cases in Ottawa within its membership.
In a statement, Ottawa Public Health says it doesn’t have specific data on any spread through sports in part due to the difficulty of tracing individual transmission incidents and also to protect personal health information.
Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist, poses for a photo on Sept. 28. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC)
The Ottawa Sport Council said many leagues and associations are offering shorter registration periods, instead of the typical September to March period, to allow for more flexibility.
“Most participants understand that there might be stop and start because as we go through waves of COVID[-19], there might be the requirement that, for safety reasons, the activity has to stop,” Morris said.
Epidemiologist Deonandan suggests a wait-and-see approach for higher risk sports.
“If you can hold off a month or two as we see how this disease moves along its proposed trajectory, if we get past the anticipated peak in October, November and if we’re doing better then — then I’d reassess the risk.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
