A northern Michigan health department has found several clusters of COVID-19 cases that it says are linked to sporting events.
The Health Department of Northwest Michigan said that more 30% of the cases it identified in the last two weeks were in people between 13 and 19 years old.
“Deaths and complicated illness have occurred in young people in our area,” the department’s health officer, Lisa Peacock, said. “It is impossible to predict who might be affected next.”
Gaylord Community Schools, which is in the health department’s jurisdiction, suspended in-person classes last week after students on the hockey, wrestling and basketball teams tested positive or were exposed to the novel coronavirus.
But Michigan High School Athletic Association spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly said school sports are actually helping to contain the virus.
“Having school sports at least is keeping it within those communities,” he said. “Once you take the community out of it, the high school sports out of it, you’re going to have those students in non-school sports where they’re going to be doing those activities and practicing and playing with people from a number of different communities.”
Kimmerly said school sports teams have a long list of rules to keep players and their classmates and families safe.
He said the data the athletic association has seen does not show the virus spreading within teams that are following the rules. Outbreaks are being started and sustained by gatherings outside of school sports, he said.
Keeping sports safe and avoiding an early end to their seasons relies on student-athletes sticking to a limited set of activities, said Kimmerly: “We need to practice, we need to come to our competitions, and then we need to pretty much be limited to that.”
