Return To Play

Panther Hoops Basketball has laid out a series of steps that we will take together to protect each other. The steps are also to ensure that our program can come back from these challenging times as strong or stronger than before. From the outset, our focus and effort has been to protect our members. We aim to do this by slowing the rate of transmission, through proactively cancelling our in person activities and offering virtual P4 Workouts (Panther Preferred Performance Program). These protective measures and restrictions have been not only for our members safety but also public health benefit. As a result, we have lost time that would have been used on developing our players to compete at a higher level. Going forward in order to continue to protect seniors and at- risk people and ensure that our health care system can respond to this dangerous virus, means that we all have to keep doing our part – at home, at work, in the community and on the court. Stay home and away from others if you have cold or flu symptoms. If you have a family member in your household who is at greater risk (over the age of 60 or with underlying medical conditions), please think through your risk tolerance and take extra precautions.

Stay at home and keep a safe distance from family when you have cold or flu symptoms, including:

Coughing, Sneezing, Runny nose, Sore throat, Fatigue

Practice good hygiene, including:

No physical contact, high fives, handshaking or hugs outside of your family. Regular hand washing, avoid touching your face, cough and/or sneeze away and into your forearm when possible, disinfect frequently touched surfaces. Keep physical distancing, as much as possible when in the community and where not possible, consider using a non-medical mask or face covering

When we are in the gym or on the court, with teammates and friends who don’t live with you, we will endeavor to:

• Only practice in small groups, up to 6 people and keep a physical distance.
• Physical distancing measures – reducing the density of people by limiting #s of participants and increasing the number of sessions available.
• Engineering controls – employing physical barriers or increased ventilation, where applicable
• Administrative controls – providing clear rules and guidelines in advance by email and on our public sites, posting on site where possible and stringent enforcement of rules – removing those who do not comply. And asking those who appear to be sick or ill not to attend or go home.
• Personal protective equipment – like the use of non-medical masks, use of sanitizers and frequent cleaning of common touch surfaces
• Provide practice at home options to reduce contact. Where it is possible implement measures such as staggered small group practices and virtual or online development sessions.

Core Measures: The foundation to reduce transmission:

• NO handshaking, high fives or physical contact is the new norm!
• Practice good hygiene o frequent hand washing with soap and water
• Use of hand sanitizers
• avoid touching one’s face, cough into your sleeve
• frequently disinfect touched surfaces
• maintain reasonable physical distancing as much as possible when outside the home
• use a non-medical mask or face covering in situations where reasonable physical distancing cannot be consistently maintained
• if you have the symptoms of a cold, flu, or COVID-19, including a cough, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, or fatigue, you must stay at home (not coming to practice/gym) and keep a safe distance from others in your family until those symptoms have completely disappeared. Together, we can take these actions to keep the curve flat, while doing more to improve our personal well-being, restart our economy and strengthen our connections in our communities. Basketball is an important part of the social infrastructure, and will support players and parents in the return to normalcy While it is well established that children are important drivers of influenza virus transmission in the community; for the COVID-19 virus, initial data indicates that children are less affected than adults and that clinical attack rates in the 0-19 age group are low. Preliminary data from studies suggest that children are infected from adults, rather than vice versa. This is an important consideration with respect to carefully restarting activities, but is an area in which the evidentiary base will continue to develop. The evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on young adults appears to be evolving although the data to date suggests that they are very likely to experience mild symptoms. In general, Recreation and involvement in sports are important developmental activities and critical to a youth’s psycho-social development as well as learning but also for younger children, important to a parent’s ability to maintain a sense of normalcy. The plan for a cautious return towards the 60% social contact maximum of the pre-COVID-19 normal.
• routine daily screening for all staff and players (Temperature measurement prior to every activity)
• routine and frequent environmental cleaning (Before, after and during each practice basketballs will be cleaned and disinfected as well as every player having their own basketball)
• implementation of a range of options to reduce transmission including: smaller class sizes; staggered sessions: potential of differential routine, each week; focus in the daily routine on frequent washing of hands and other hygiene practices; small group activities and wearing of non-medical masks for those group activities; no high contact sports; limit group sizes of extracurricular activities.
• explicit policy for parents, players and staff who have the symptoms of a cold, flu, or COVID-19 with coughing or sneezing not to come into school, gym or facility or taking part in activities. Any staff or player with a higher risk of experiencing severe illness should not take part in group activities.
• continued planning for increased use of online learning, balanced against the need of physical 7 social interaction for learning and development.
• early arrival and self-isolation for 14 days of all new international players.

Implement approved “new normal” practice standards, as applicable, including those for:

• School and Post Secondary Institutions Practice Standards
• Recreational Facilities Practice Standards
• Outdoor Recreational Setting Practice Standards
• Parks, Beaches and Outdoor Space Standards

We anticipate the coming several weeks, to bring further clarity on:

• Travel Management measures for:
  • Travel in province
  • Inter-provincial travel
  • International travel measures (outbound and inbound) where there was no immediate change in the restrictions
• Large scale public events, where there no change in the immediate restrictions. The PHO has restated total bans on mass gatherings of no more than 50 people

What you need to know: The basic transmission facts:

• Coronavirus is transmitted via larger liquid droplets when a person coughs or sneezes but also potentially when they are talking in very close proximity to another person. The virus in these droplets then can enter the body of another person when that person breathes in the droplets or when the droplets touch the eyes, nose or throat of that person.
• This requires you to be in close contact – less than the so-called socicial distancing of 3 – 6 feet. This is referred to as ‘droplet’ transmission and is believed to be the primary way COVID-19 is transmitted.
• In addition, droplet transmission is much more likely when in close contact in an indoor setting. COVID-19 can also be transmitted through droplets in the environment if someone touches the contaminated area then touches their face or eyes without cleaning their hands. This speaks to the importance of regularly cleaning one’s hands and also cleaning of high touch areas in the environment.
• A key issue in transmission is the median incubation period (the time from infection to appearance of symptoms) and the serial interval (the time between successive cases) for the Covid-19 virus. The serial interval for Covid-19 virus is estimated to be 5-6 days. The serial interval is 3 days for influenza with transmission taking place in the first 1-3 days of illness, presymptomatic transmission (transmission of the virus before the appearance of symptoms) being a major driver of transmission for influenza. For Covid19 there are some emerging indications that there are people who can shed Covid-19 virus 24-48 hours prior to symptom onset, but at present, the WHO suggests that this does not appear to be a major driver of transmission. However, we need to acknowledge that there is debate about this and that at this time we cannot be categorical.
• You can help move you to a lower risk category by taking a range of actions: o Physical distancing measures – measures to reduce the density (intensity and number of contacts) of people in your setting.
• Engineering controls – physical barriers (Plexiglas for example) o Administrative controls – rules and guidelines to help coaches, players and parents reduce the risk of transmission.
• Use of personal protective equipment in the form of non-medical masks.
• If you have any specific questions or concerns relating to our program or what we are doing going forward please do not hesitate to contact us directly.