High School Winter Contact Sports In Michigan Can Resume Monday

LANSING, MI — Winter contact sports in Michigan can return as soon as Monday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday in a news conference.

Whitmer said that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services updated an existing epidemic order to allow contact sports such as high school basketball as long as the participating athletes wear masks. If masks cannot be worn during practice or competition, athletes must be regularly tested for the coronavirus.

"I know these past months have been tough on all of us," Whitmer said Thursday. "I know they've been really hard on student-athletes who've been missing a sense of connection and belonging as well as many other attributes that playing sports provides."

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The order will remain in effect through March 29, Whitmer said.

Whitmer's announcement come two days after a Michigan advocacy group supporting the resumption of contact sports in Michigan filed a lawsuit against Hertel over executive orders pushing the start of the winter sports season to Feb. 21.

Read More: Let Them Play Michigan Sues MI Health Director

Whitmer announced on Jan. 22 that the beginning of indoor contact sports would be pushed back from Monday to Feb. 21. State health officials cited fears of coronavirus spread as the reason they have kept winter sports shut down.

Thousands of high school coaches, players and parents held a rally Saturday at the Michigan Capitol in support of kicking off winter sports. MLive reported that the Let Them Play Michigan cause has grown to more than 36,000 supporters since the state delayed the start of winter sports.

Related: Michigan High School Athletes Call On Whitmer To 'Let Us Play'

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan's chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at MDHHS, reiterated that the state has been monitoring hospital capacity dedicated to COVID-19 patients, overall case rates and testing positivity rates in deciding how to reopen parts of the state.

According to data released by state health officials Thursday, Michigan has seen improvements in those three metrics in recent days.

Hospital capacity dedicated to COVID-19 patients has been in a 10-week decline, with a current capacity at 6.6 percent for beds with COVID-19 patients, officials said.

Overall case rates are currently at 159 cases per million after peaking at 740 cases per million on Nov. 14, 2020, officials said.  The rate has been in a decline for 24 days.

The positivity rate is currently at 4.9 percent and declining, officials said. This is the first time positivity has been this low since mid-October.

In addition to the mask requirement described in Thursday's epidemic order, athletes also need to maintain six feet of distance when not actively engaged in play. Spectators are allowed with up to 250 people in stadiums that seat fewer than 10,000 people and up to 500 people at venues that seat over 10,000 people.

“Today’s announcement is possible because of our progress over the last two months,” MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel said. “Michiganders need to remain vigilant, however, as we now have a new more easily transmitted variant of this virus present in our state. All Michigan residents need to minimize their risk by avoiding gatherings, wearing masks properly, social distancing, and making a plan to get the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine when it is their turn.”

Indoor residential and non-residential gatherings are limited to 10 people and two households, according to the latest order. Venues and activities where participants have close physical contact and cannot stay masked — such as water parks — remain closed, however.