ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced new safety guidelines for adult sports during his COVID-19 briefing on Friday.
During the briefing, Page said the data is showing an “unacceptable” increase in coronavirus cases in the 20-29 and 30-39 age group.
“In addition to measures we have taken to close bars and limit crowd sizes, we are now issuing new guidelines for adult sports,” Page said.
The new guidelines go into effect on Monday, Aug. 17, and apply to individuals 19-years-old and older.
The new guidelines will be categorized according to the frequency of contact, similar to the guidelines for youth sports.
There will be three classifications for adult contact sports – high, moderate, and low frequency.
For high-frequency contact sports, team workouts and practices are allowed with the new guidelines. Team contact drills are allowed with groups of 20 players or fewer and two coaches will be permitted.
Each group of players must remain in a separate single space from other groups and must be separated from other groups by a 20-foot barrier. For high-frequency sports, games, scrimmages, tournaments, and competitions will not be permitted.
High-frequency contact sports include football, wrestling, basketball, tackling, boxing, martial arts, rugby, and water polo.
“These changes will allow for more participation in drills and workouts and will allow them to occur in the same athletic complex,” Page said.
In moderate frequency sports, there is contact between players, but the restrictions will limit the amount of contact between players. Moderate frequency sports include baseball, cheerleading, dance, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, etc.
Moderate frequency sports can have 30 players with the same 20-foot barrier between single spaces of scrimmages. Scrimmages are permitted in moderate frequency sports.
In low-frequency, players have little contact with each other because of the nature of the sport. Full team practices and scrimmages are permitted. Tournaments that involve individual players – like golf – are also permitted.
Low-frequency contact sports include diving, gymnastics, bicycling, track and field events, and swimming.
Face coverings must be worn when athletes are not doing vigorous physical activity and social distancing must be followed whenever possible. Coaches must always wear face coverings and no spectators will be permitted.
“Playing sports with or against other individuals holds an apparent risk that someone could contract COVID-19 and pass it along to family members, people at work or people in a household,” Page said. “Please consider these risks when participating in organized sports.”
As of Friday morning, St. Louis County reported 16,133 total cases of the coronavirus and 676 deaths. Missouri is reporting 63,797 total cases and 1,325 deaths.
Click here for more information on COVID-19 in St. Louis County.
