Sport NZ has this afternoon published on its website public guidance on how New Zealanders can remain physically active during Covid-19 Alert Level 2. The good news for many is that organised sport can start to work towards a return, subject to some very important conditions relating to hygiene, contract tracing and mass gatherings.
“This will be welcome news to many New Zealanders given the restrictions we’ve seen with play, active recreation and sport during Alert Levels 4 and 3, but we ask that organisations and individuals now take time to fully understand the guidelines and what is required of them to make a returned to organised sport safe and compliant,” says Sport NZ CEO Peter Miskimmin.
“We expect that sports will take some time to understand what this means, so people should expect a phased approach of getting organised, establishing appropriate protocols and ensuring volunteers, participants and supporters know how to follow them.”
“It is most likely going to be a case of training first. This is a ‘prepare to play’ phase. We don’t want sport to be the reason we go backwards in alert levels,” says Peter Miskimmin.
The Level 2 Guidelines for Physical Activity are available at sportnz.org.nz. These include guidance around hygiene, contract tracing and mass gatherings, and how these apply to various forms of play, active recreation and sport.