Encouraging possibilities for the controlled re-opening of athletic facilities, such as gyms and pools, and for the increased allowable capacity for social gatherings are entailed in the State of Alaska’s Phase Two restrictions which were announced on Wednesday by Governor Mike Dunleavy and are set to become effective on Friday, May 8th. Phase Two items are considered attachments to the state’s Health Mandate #16.
Adam Crum, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services commissioner explained the new guidelines as they pertain to athletic facilities, building usage and social gatherings.
Crum stated, ” Social and religious gatherings are going to be able to increase from 20 to up to 50 people. If you’re going to be exerting or projecting your voice, try to stay 10 feet away from each other or wear a cloth face covering both for indoor and outdoor activities”.
Specifically, director Crum addressed athletic facilities and pools and their availability to larger number of users.
“Opening of gyms and fitness centers, they were previously allowed to do outdoor activities; now we are going to say you can move into indoor activities at 25% of your capacity with walk-ins permitted. We want to maintain 10-foot social distancing because of the exertion aspect, you’ll be projecting and breathing hard and moving the virus around and we want to take care of that. The other opportunity is swimming pools; both stand-alone and or swimming pools within fitness centers there are some specific guidelines for a couple of them. This is going to be 50% of the pools capacity not the total building, the people in the water”, said Crum.
Under the new mandates the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District can make decisions on whether to open their swimming facilities and North Peninsula Recreation Service Area can also decide what their new mandates will be for the Nikiski Pool. Organized sports and youth sports may also see some light on the horizon with new mandates towards organized sports and a number of volunteer groups putting together recommendations to get organized sports back up and running.
Crum added, ” Organized activities, that’s your youth sports, little league, hockey, soccer, items like that as well as adult leagues. We’re trying to put together the best guidance as we look out for the state. We hope to very soon have a time frame when we can say “you know what we’d like to think at this date we can do this using these safety protocols” this is how we can protect ourselves going forward. So this is something that we’re working on. We’ve had a lot of volunteer groups in the community step up and put together working groups to actually give us the best advise on this. We are soliciting input from all comers when it come to each one of these industries and various sectors to make sure its appropriate.”
One of these working groups is spear-headed by the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.
Crum stated, ” The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame has put together a work group across the board of different groups: physicians, organized activities leaders, youth sports, adult sports, and they’ve been working and putting together some recommendations which have been very useful. That’s been a great asset.”
With the Phase Two attachment to the Health Mandate #16, area groups such as: Boys and Girls Club, North Pen Rec, KPBSD, Little League Baseball, summer soccer leagues, can now optimistically make plans for the summer of 2020.
