COVID-19: Nation-Wide Suspension of Tournaments, Games, Trainings, & Dropbears Camps
/The Quidditch Australia board has been monitoring the national COVID-19 situation closely over the last several days, and has made the following decisions:
Effective immediately, all games and tournaments have been suspended nation-wide.
Effective immediately, trainings have also been suspended nation-wide, teams are urged to use common sense and follow recommendations with regards to social events.
The upcoming Dropbears training camp scheduled for 28/29th March in Sydney has been cancelled.
These suspensions are until further notice, but expected to last for at least the next several months, if not significantly further. For context, the Federal Government announced today that it expects around a six-month impact of the virus in Australia. More information shall be forthcoming as more decisions are made regarding events later in the calendar such as State Shield and QUAFL, and more information comes to light regarding the projected timeline of the virus’ impact in Australia.
We will have further information regarding player memberships in the next few days. Thank you for your patience during these unprecedented times.
Details & Justifications for today’s announcements follow:
1 - Tournaments are to be suspended nation-wide
While some areas around the nation have significantly lower risk than others, we believe that tournaments, given they bring a larger number of people from different teams and potentially from different areas and often involve more travel, and involve close physical contact while playing games, pose a significant risk compared to small club trainings which can be non-contact and involve less people. As such, we have instituted a nation-wide suspension on all tournaments and official games. Encouragingly, we are pleased to see that many organisers have cancelled or postponed events on their own initiative, and Quidditch Australia strongly supports these actions.
2 - Trainings are also suspended, Teams are urged to follow recommendations.
Encouragingly, we are aware that most clubs in high risk areas such as NSW, Victoria, and QLD, have suspended trainings of their own accord, which, as above, Quidditch Australia supports. We have decided to extend this suspension nation-wide at this time, to ensure we remain ahead of the curve, and slow the spread of COVID-19 as much as possible.
We are aware that by suspending trainings, in practical terms, this merely means sanctioning will not be granted/will be revoked for any upcoming trainings. However, this may not have actual implications for many teams who do not apply for sanctioning for their trainings anyway. We wish to strongly encourage all teams to follow local guidelines, and common sense if you are trying to decide for yourself whether you want to continue team trainings. For example, the benefits of team exercise to physical and mental health may outweight the risk of transmission in areas of Australia such as Perth or the ACT with low infection rate and low level of community spread. However, we urge any team who decides to continue training to minimise these activities, practise social distancing, avoid activities that involve contact, and focus on drills that emphasise footwork, agility, and fitness, as opposed to ball-handling etc., and follow Quidditch Australia guidelines around hygiene practices detailed here. If you are unsure on what decision to make, we encourage you to use the resources provided at www.quidditchaustralia.org/covid-19, and ultimately, to err on the side of caution.
Similarly, while we recognise that Quidditch Australia does not regulate the social aspect of quidditch, we understand that social events comprise a significant part of quidditch for many people. Again, we strongly urge people to follow federal government advice regarding social distancing at such events, and strongly encourage clubs to minimise such events as appropriate to their local risk level.
Quidditch Australia understands the importance of quidditch to the physical and mental health of many players around the country, however, we believe that the risks involved in continuing quidditch related activities are beginning to outweigh these benefits, we believe that there are ways teams can be engaging with each other online or through individual exercises that bring some of these benefits with less risk, and we believe we have a responsibility to act in the interest of the safety of our members and of the broader Australian society, with regards to slowing the spread of COVID-19.
3 - Dropbears training camp cancelled
As the upcoming Dropbears training camp was to be held in Sydney (which Quidditch Australia at this point considers to be a high-risk location considering the rapidly escalating number of cases and relatively high level of community based spread) and would have involved people travelling interstate, we believed this posed a significant risk and have cancelled, especially considering the event is over a week away, and the situation is likely to have significantly worsened by then.
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We thank the Australian Quidditch Community for their patience, cooperation, and communication during this trying and unprecedented time, and hope everyone continues to act in the best interest of the whole community and wider society. Quidditch Australia is working on publishing resources and ideas for how teams can be continuing to engage socially and in fitness through individual and online means. If you would like to help with these efforts, please reach out to media@quidditchaustralia.org.