The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UNH official says masks should be worn for winter sports
The state Department of Health could release its updated guidelines on winter high school sports as early as Friday. Masks could be required for all CIAC athletes during indoor competition.
Dr. Karl E. Minges, the director of the Master of Public Health Program from the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, believes masks should be a requirement for some of those winter sports.
“Any sport that has a high level of contact is one where athletes should be wearing a mask. I’d be questioning whether to do it at all,” Dr. Minges said.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced a 6.1 percent positivity rate for COVID-19 during his Thursday afternoon briefing at the state Capitol, the highest percentage since early June.
“There’s no good news in these numbers,” Lamont said. “I look hard to find a silver lining and I can’t find it in these numbers, except perhaps that we have done a lot of testing.”
Lamont also said there have been 45 hockey-related infections from youth hockey. He said he would monitor what goes on at ice rinks this weekend and make a determination early next week whether stricter enforcement is needed.
Minges is also the Chair of Health Administration and Policy and has been an assistant professor at the university since 2018. He received his Ph.D. at Yale University. A 2003 Daniel Hand High graduate, Minges said he played football before competing in cross country there.
Among his current concerns are student-athletes properly wearing masks during competition.
“If we go forward with this, it would be wise with a sport that has some level of contact to have maskwearing,” Minges said. “To have hand-washing and sanitation are also important. Basketball is a tricky one. There is a significant level of contact, not to the same degree as wrestling, but it’s not like it is volleyball.”
Currently, girls volleyball players are wearing masks in order to be able to compete indoors. That was a requirement to put girls volleyball in the moderate-risk category. Otherwise, the sport would have had to be held outdoors.
The National Federation of High Schools is not mandating the use of masks for the winter season, according to Dr. Karissa Niehoff, the executive director of the National Federation of High Schools. The organization receives guidance from its own sports medical advisory committee.
“They still are not interested in changing their language. Essentially, our sports medical advisory committee said that it’s not necessarily appropriate to have masks on during competition,” Niehoff said, noting that the committee has been asked plenty of times about its stance. “That being said, it is prudent for other participants in the venue, (people on) the bench, coach, the official scorer’s table … it is probably best for those folks to have masks on at all times.”
The CIAC’s individual sports committees have followed along the same lines, making mask-wearing optional among its mitigation recommendations. Gregg Simon, the associate executive director for the CIAC, said last week that feedback has been provided from the girls volleyball matches in order to conduct winter sports like basketball safely.
Minges feels indoor track can be held safely, along with gymnastics and boys swimming, “as long as masks are worn when they got out of the water.” Girls swimming has been conducted this fall both with in-person and virtual meets.
Boys swimming would likely follow along the same lines and both indoor track and gymnastics can also be held virtually. The CIAC has already determined that no invitational or multisport meets will be allowed this winter due to the pandemic.
Minges feels hockey has “a little bit of a lower risk in regards to the virus being spread because there is (an option for) a face shield covering the eyes and mouth. So there are modes of entry blocked in different ways.”
As far as basketball goes, Minges is concerned about players perspiring and being in close contact.
“(Players are) going to be exhaling more of the droplets so there is more of the likelihood in transmitting the virus in a quicker way,” Minges said.
Minges also suggested for gymnasiums to have “ample filtration and air flow” and, even though it will be winter, to have doors and windows open to help in that regard.
Wrestling is the one winter sport the NFHS has in the high-risk category due to its close contact, perspiration and the spreading of droplets that Minges discussed.
Any sport not held this winter would be moved to the Second Semester Alternate Season between February and April.
Whatever does proceed this winter, Minges suggest that COVID testing be done before all games and meets.