SPORT MEDICINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATE:
(Excerpt)
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is over 2.5 million with 690,000 recovered and 177,608 deaths. There are documented cases in over 213 countries or territories. While some countries have slowed the doubling rate of new cases and deaths (now at approx. 10 days in Canada), other areas in the world are seeing these rates continue to accelerate. We are continuing to see prolonged second waves in countries that relaxed their restrictions. Canada’s health officials are monitoring this closely as this will have an impact on how other countries, including Canada, manage restrictions and relaxations in the future. A number of European countries have started to relax movement restrictions (including small group activities) this week, however it remains too early to see what the impact of this is at this stage.
In Canada we have over 38,000 cases, 1,834 deaths and 13,000 (34%) recovered. Of the 23,000 presently active cases in Canada 97% are classified as mild. In Canada the testing rate has increased with approx. 6.4% of tests returned as positive. Of the positive cases 77% have no known contact. Although the curves continue to flatten in Canada there remains a lot of risk involved in relaxing restrictions too early and we can only reemphasize that in Canada there are limited resources available and asymptomatic spread is occurring. Continue to assume all others you may encounter may have COVID and act with that in mind and continue to maintain physical distancing vigilance. Despite media reports of some sports or leagues discussing June restarts, this is not imminent in Canada. It remains too early for us to start training in groups or shared facilities as the risks of transmission and becoming infected are still very high. It will remain entirely dependent on Local, Provincial and National public health regulations as to when small group in-person training will again be possible.
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