Ontario youth told to keep masking

Athletes expected to cover faces in dressing rooms

Youth hockey players must wear masks in dressing rooms and coaches also need to don them on the bench until the end of the season to help curb the spread of COVID-19, the Ontario Hockey Federation has announced.

Even though the province lifted mask mandates in most public settings last Monday, the federation, which governs the Greater Toronto Hockey League, the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, among others, said it will continue with face coverings.

It also said it “has a zero-tolerance policy for any form of harassment or bullying as it relates to masking decisions.”

In a March 23 memo, the federation noted that, while players at the junior and senior levels are exempt, it “strongly recommends they continue to mask.”

Face coverings for all other players will be required until April 24, when championships end, it said in the memo.

The GTHL, the largest minor amateur hockey league in the world, said, while masks were previously required in dressing rooms across the province, when the rules changed March 21, “Toronto Public Health has advised we maintain this in dressing rooms and for coaches on benches until the end of the season,” said Stephanie Coratti, manager of communications and marketing.

Toronto Public Health said via email it had not previously “issued specific guidance on masking in dressing rooms,” but that masks were advised “if you are in a crowded indoor setting with poor ventilation.”

The size of most hockey dressing rooms makes physical distancing difficult when teams are using them, and air circulation may be limited, especially in some of the older facilities.