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Gov. Wolf discourages school sports until January

Governor Wolf announced this morning in a joint press conference with the secretary of the state department of health, Dr. Rachel Levine, that Wolf’s administration is recommending no school sports until January.

Wolf was asked for an update to PIAA’s recent guidance for fall sports, to which Wolf responded.

“The guidance is that we ought to avoid any congregate settings,” Wolf said. “And that means anything that brings people together is going to help that virus get us and we ought to do everything we can to defeat that virus. So any time we get together for any reason, that’s a problem because it makes it easier for that virus to spread. So the guidance from us, the recommendation is we don’t do any sports until January 1st.” said Wolf.

More guidance from the PIAA was expected later Thursday.

Wolf released this statement Thursday afternoon:

Wolf Administration Provides Recommendation for School and Recreational Youth Sports

Harrisburg, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of Education today jointly recommended that Pre-K-12 school and recreational youth sports be postponed until at least Jan. 1, 2021, to protect children and teens from COVID-19.

The administration is providing this strong recommendation and not an order or mandate. As with deciding whether students should return to in-person classes, remote learning or a blend of the two this fall, school administrators and locally elected school boards should make decisions on sports.

Highlights of the recommendation to pause youth sports until Jan. 1, 2021:

Applies to team and individual, school and non-school recreational youth sports;

Includes competitions, intramural play and scrimmages;

Continue conditioning, drills and other training activities on an individual basis;

Does not apply to collegiate and professional sports;

Gathering limits remain unchanged – no more than 25 persons may gather indoors and 250 outdoors.

The administration is updating existing sports guidance to reflect this recommendation.

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