COVID-19 UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 24th

This morning, the NSW Chief Health Officer announced some of the current restrictions on community sport would be relaxed from Saturday September 26th. The main changes are as follows:

Interregional community sporting competitions can recommence without restricting these activities to regions or zones, where there is a COVID-19 Safety Plan for the school or community sporting activity in place.
The advice provided in August regarding limiting spectators to one parent per child, and inter-region sport and recreation activities has been removed, however organisations must still ensure their activity is delivered in compliance with the Public Health Order and the COVID-19 Safety Plan requirements. This includes the requirement to adhere to the 500-person limit for community sport activities (including participants, officials and spectators) and/or adhering to the one person per four square metre rule in indoor spaces.
School and community sports organisations and participants should continue to avoid shared travel arrangements such as car-pooling, along with minimising social gatherings before and after the event.

Other information that may be relevant to shared community sport facilities:

Some community sport facilities may cater for several sports, for example multiple football fields located next to multiple netball courts in a single outdoor precinct. In this case, each organised activity is permitted up to 500 participants, as long as the people from the respective activities are not interacting with each other.
Each organised activity must have its own allocated common facilities (including changerooms, toilets and canteen areas) to ensure participants from both activities are not interacting.
Community sport organisations should discuss how this can be facilitated with their venue owner/operator.

While these developments are very positive, it is crucial that Clubs and Associations follow the below:

Have an up-to-date COVID Safety Plan and that it is communicated to your members & adhered to while in the venue.
Physical distancing protocols are followed for people not within their own "social bubble" (i.e 1.5 meters apart)
Hygiene protocols such as handwashing and sanitizing are followed. Also avoid sharing equipment, handshakes and spitting.
Attendance registers must still be used and made available for tracing purposes
Signage is still displayed encouraging physical distancing, hygiene and other COVID related topics
No more than 500 people attend your venue (if outdoors) and/or adhering to the one person per four square metre rule in indoor spaces.

Please be aware that there have been multiple checks on venues from councils and health officials recently, so please be aware of this and re-enforce the importance of complying with all Government and Health regulations in place at the current time.

It is important to emphasise that even though some restricitons have been relaxed, there are still many that are in place. We all need to ensure we are taking individual responsibility around our venues over the last few weeks of the season.

For more details, please click here to see the announcement from NSW Health