Indoor Sports Can Resume In NJ Amid Coronavirus, Gov. Says

NEW JERSEY – Gov. Phil Murphy has announced that a number of indoor spaces and school activities can immediately reopen in New Jersey even as coronavirus cases in the Garden State have been on the rise lately.

Murphy signed an executive order on Monday evening allowing the resumption of contact practices and competitions in indoor settings for organized sports defined as “medium risk” and “high risk.”

The state Department of Health also provided a list of rules and guidelines for organizers and participants in these activities to follow (see below).

Murphy made the announcement as New Jersey had its highest daily case numbers in four months over the past week. On Monday, however, the state's number did drop to its lowest daily total since Sept. 23rd: 478.

Fatalities have also dramatically reduced, with one additional death reported on Monday. New Jersey has had 214,097 positive cases and 14,387 confirmed deaths.

The new order encompasses sports including hockey, basketball, cheerleading, group dance, rugby, boxing, judo, karate, Taekwondo, and wrestling. Murphy previously signed an executive order that permitted the resumption of outdoor sports activities, “low risk” practices and competitions in indoor settings and non-contact indoor practices for “medium risk” and “high risk” sports.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for our student-athletes, support staff, and school communities,” said Murphy. “After consulting stakeholders and medical experts, we have concluded that, with proper public health and safety protocols in place, indoor sports may now resume in a way that protects players, coaches, and staff.”

All indoor practices and competitions are limited to 25 percent of the capacity of the room. However, if the number of people who are necessary for practice or competition, such as players, coaches, and referees, exceeds 25 percent, the practice or competition may proceed – as long as no spectators are there.

The number of people at the practice or competition also cannot exceed 150.

Additionally, sports under the oversight of either the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association or the NCAA must continue to abide by those associations' rules. All sporting activities must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and Executive Orders.

Here are the state Department of Health's specific guidelines:

Preparing a Sports Program for Practices

Each sports program shall create a plan (“program preparation plan”) to ensure the following:

• Identify adult staff members or volunteers to help remind coaches, players and staff of social distancing.
• Use of signs, tapes or physical barriers can be used to assist with guiding social distancing requirements.
• Within the program, consider creating consistent groups of the same staff, volunteers, and athletes, and avoid mixing between groups.
• Individuals shall remain 6 feet apart from one another whenever possible.
• This applies to athletes, coaching staff, and referees, as well as parents/guardians and other spectators to the extent they are permitted.
• Coaching staff and parents/guardians should wear cloth or disposable masks.
• Athletes should wear cloth or disposable masks when not engaging in vigorous activity, such as when sitting on the bench, when interacting with an athletic trainer, etc. Face masks are not required when persons are engaged in high intensity aerobic or anaerobic activities.
• Face masks should not be worn when engaged in activities that may cause the cloth face covering to become wet, like when swimming, or when doing so may endanger the individual’s health.
• When face coverings are not worn, efforts should be made to maintain at least 6 feet from others.
• Create staggered schedules to limit contact between groups and/or players

All staff should be educated on COVID-19 health and safety protocols prior to the resumption of athletic activities, including:

• Revised practice rules and regulations in place during COVID-19
• The importance of staying home when experiencing symptoms of COVID- 19 or residing with someone experiencing symptoms of COVID- 19
• Social distancing and face coverings
• Proper hand hygiene
• How to address a situation in which an athlete presents with symptoms of COVID-19
• How to address situations in which social distancing or other necessary requirements are challenged by athletes or parents/guardians/visitors.

Educate athletes and coaching staff about when they should stay home and when they can return to activity.

• Actively encourage sick staff, families, and players to stay home.
• Develop policies that encourage sick employees to stay at home without fear of reprisal, and ensure employees are aware of these policies.
• Individuals, including coaches, players, and families, should stay home if they have tested positive for or are showing COVID-19 symptoms.
• Individuals, including coaches, players, and families, who have recently had a close contact with a person with COVID-19 should also stay home and monitor their health.
• Immediately separate coaches, staff, officials, and athletes with COVID- 19 symptoms at any sports activity. Individuals who have had close contact with a person who has symptoms should be separated and sent home as well, and follow CDC guidance for community-related exposure.
• Establish procedures for safely transporting anyone who is sick to their home or to a healthcare facility.
• All athletes, coaches, and staff should bring their own water and drinks to practice activities. Team water coolers for sharing through disposable cups and other types of shared water sources should not be permitted.
• Encourage athletes to use their own equipment to the extent possible.
• Discourage sharing of equipment as much as possible. If equipment is shared, coaching staff should be aware of the sanitation procedures for team equipment (balls, bats, etc.) and sufficient disinfecting wipes or similar products should be made available. Consult CDC guidance for cleaning and disinfection.
• Individually partitioned showers or communal showers with installed barriers/partitions (at least 6 feet apart) are only permitted in facilities with pools.
• Locker room use will otherwise be limited to hand washing and restroom use only. If facility showers are to be used, ensure signage is in place to reminding athletes to maintain proper physical distancing of 6 feet.
• Communicate applicable details of the plan to parents/guardians and/or participants before commencing practices.
• Organizers should further consult and implement, as appropriate, recommendations listed in the CDC guidance regarding assessing risk, promoting healthy behaviors, and maintaining a healthy environment during youth sports.

Preparing an Indoor or Outdoor Facility for Sports Practices

Each facility that will be used for practices must:

• Post signage in highly visible locations with reminders regarding social distancing protocols, face covering requirements, and good hygiene practices (e.g., hand hygiene, covering coughs)
• Reduced crowding and enforce proper social distancing around entrances, exits, and other high-traffic areas of the facility
• Ensure routine and frequent cleaning and disinfecting, particularly of high-touch surfaces in accordance with CDC recommendations
• Limit occupancy in restrooms that remain open to avoid overcrowding, maintain social distancing through signage and, where practicable, utilize attendants to monitor capacity
• Have hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, soap and water, or other sanitizing materials readily available at entrances, exits, benches, dugouts, and any other area prone to gathering or high traffic.
• On any given field or space, there must be sufficient space between designated groups to prevent any interaction between the groups.

Indoor facilities should ensure appropriate indoor air/ventilation by:

• Keeping doors and windows open where possible and utilize fans to improve ventilation.
• Inspecting and evaluating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit to ensure that the system is operating within its design specifications.
• Conducting routine maintenance as recommended by the manufacturer or HVAC professional.

Within the design specification of the HVAC unit:

• Increasing the volume of outdoor air to the maximum capacity while the gym is occupied.
• Reducing the volume of recirculated air being returned to the indoor spaces
• Increasing the volume of air being delivered to the indoor spaces to the maximum capacity
• Selecting maximum filtration levels for the HVAC unit.
• Ensuring that the HVAC unit runs continuously while the facility is occupied.
• Ensuring that the HVAC unit runs for at least two hours before and two hours after the facility is occupied.
• Considering installing portable air cleaners equipped with a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to increase the amount of clean air within the facility.
• Reviewing and following the latest CDC guidance for ventilation requirements.

Conducting Sports Practices

• All athletes, coaches, staff and others participating in practices and competitions must be screened, via temperature check and/or health questionnaire, at the beginning of each session.
• Players, coaches, staff, and volunteers showing symptoms of COVID-19 shall not be permitted to participate.
• If any individual develops symptoms of COVID-19 during the activity, they should promptly inform organizers and must be removed from the activity and instructed to return home.
• Coaches, staff, visitors and athletes will be required to abide by the gatherings/limitations outlined.
• Encourage practice activities that do not involve sustained person-to-person contact between athletes and/or coaching staff, and limit such activities in indoor settings. For example, focus on individual skill-building activities.
• Adhere to precautions outlined in the program preparation plan.
• Ensure that athletes and coaches adhere to social distancing while not actively involved in practice activities (on the bench, in the dugout, etc.). Consider assigning coaching staff to monitor sideline social distancing.
• If any equipment is provided by the operator, operators must minimize equipment sharing and clean and disinfect shared equipment at the end of a practice session using a product from the list of disinfectants meeting EPA criteria for use against the novel coronavirus.
• Do not permit athletes to share food, beverages, water bottles, towels, pinnies, gloves, helmets or any other equipment or materials that is involved in direct bodily contact.
• Consider dividing larger teams into smaller groups and staggering practices at different times or across different days.
• Limit any nonessential visitors, spectators, staff, volunteers, vendors, members of the media, and activities involving external groups or organizations as much as possible.
• Visitors and spectators should wear face masks at all times, unless doing so would inhibit the individual’s health or the individual is under the age of 2.
• Spectators will not be permitted at an indoor practice or competition when the number of participants, coaches, referees and other necessary persons exceeds 25.
• Where they are permitted, operators are encouraged to mark off spectator/chaperone viewing sites to allow for social distancing.
• Visitors showing symptoms of COVID-19 shall not be permitted to attend.
• Restrict spitting, handshakes, high-fives, team huddles and any other close-contacting activities.

Preparing for games and tournaments

Competitions, tournaments, invitationals, and other activities or events that involve interaction between athletes from the same team or between teams, while permitted, carry significant risks that operators, towns, coaches, parents and others should carefully consider before proceeding.

If participating in or organizing a competition, tournament, or invitational:

• Follow protocols listed above under “conducting sports practices.”
• Coaches, staff, visitors and athletes will be required to abide by the gatherings limitations in effect at the time of competition.
• Concession stands should meet the requirements for indoor and outdoor dining outlined in the applicable Executive Orders and Executive Directives.
• Consider social distancing requirements when scheduling contests and events.
• Social distancing will need to be maintained on buses/vans. Thus, multiple buses/vans and/or individual parent/guardian transportation will likely be required. Games should be scheduled at intervals that allow for proper sanitation of facilities and equipment following each game.

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