It is with increasing frustration Sporting Activities has been stopped due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. Dr Avery Hinds by his own admission stated that sporting activities were not directly responsible for the spike but it was the interactions before during and after such activities.
Let's retrace to July of 2020. Sporting activities resumed with all protocols in place with no cases attributable to the same. If I recall, didn't the spike occur weeks after election campaigning where the breaches in health protocols were clearly evident for all to see (congregating of persons by the 100s, no mask-wearing in public and on contracted maxis as well as the consumption of alcohol before, during and after walkabouts)?
We are in the midst of another spike after permissions were given for a multitude of mass gatherings. On Tuesday last and since beaches have reopened there have been 100s of people on beaches with no mask-wearing, congregating by bars has met with less enforcement and blatant breaches for all to see. Once again sporting activities are the first to be targeted.
The world has found ways of maintaining sporting activities in countries with much higher infection rates. At the club level, we have invested in digital thermometers to pre-screen children and hand sanitisers. Kids are not going to bars after training and therefore kids below the age of 18 should be allowed to continue practicing with their respective clubs maintaining the maximum allocation of 22 players.
To the adults (as I do not attribute this spike to our kids) in the sporting fraternity, who did not appreciate the leniency afforded by our government in allowing sporting activities and flaunted the health protocols, shame on you.
Our time has come and gone. We have nothing to prove any more, the knees are arthritic and the body is weak. Obviously, you cared only about yourselves, your selfish interests (is a 'fete' match so critical to our livelihood) and did not care about the mental and physical welfare of our kids.
To our kids whose smiles returned upon the resumption of training, who felt like their lives were returning to some semblance of normalcy and have now been plunged back to the depths of depression, we as adults failed you and you are owed an apology. We all need to do better, to think of others and not our private and selfish interests.
To our government, you cannot provide athletic scholarships or opportunities in sports to our kids to pursue their goals. Please work with the clubs and stakeholders so we can maintain sporting activities for those under the age of 18. The risks of transmission, based on scientific data, is low.
Joseph Elias