Due to the recent sharp increase in prevalence of COVID-19 in our state, AHSAA has shared the following measures recommended by Dr. Scott Harris, State Health Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH).
1. For indoor sports, to help facilitate social distancing, and to reduce the potential exposure to COVID-19 by large numbers of people, the total number of spectators be limited to less than 20% of usual occupancy.
2. In any sport where there is hand to hand contact, or hand contact with a shared object such as a ball, players and officials sanitize their hands each time they enter and leave the court or area of active play.
3. Hosting schools make a public announcement at the beginning of each game, and during intermissions, reminding all spectators to maintain at least 6 feet of distance between themselves and persons not in their household, and to keep their face coverings or masks on at all times while in the athletic venue.
4. For sports tournaments involving multiple teams and games, schedule and organize the events such that mingling of spectators with teams not actively engaged in competition is avoided.
5. Encourage players, their families, and their coaches to refrain from organizing non-sport related social activities which increase the risk for transmission and may jeopardize sport participation.
6. If a sporting event participant or official is diagnosed with COVID-19 within two days after an event, the opposite team and officials be contacted to determine the need for quarantine among individuals in that group.
7. Additionally, the Department requests our athletic associations encourage and empower sporting event officials to delay the start of an event or suspend competition whenever spectators are not complying with social distancing guidelines or proper wearing of face coverings or masks
