Contact sports still unlikely, IATF official says

MANILA, Philippines — While it has allowed the training of student athletes to resume in some areas, the government is still “not confident enough” to permit contact sports because of rising coronavirus infections, an official said.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, vice chairman of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), noted that close contact cannot be avoided in some athletic activities like basketball.

“Whatever we do, there will be contact among players. You cannot play basketball without contact. Fouls are committed,” Nograles said in a live online session last Saturday. “Because of the number of COVID-19 infections, we are not yet confident enough to allow contact sports.”

Nograles noted that the IATF has only allowed non-contact indoor sports and condition training as the government prefers a gradual easing of pandemic-related restrictions.

“What we allow so far is conditioning training. We don’t allow scrimmage,” the Cabinet official said.

“We allowed physical conditioning first. Let’s start with that... While athletes are undergoing training, we might receive other proposals.

Of course, (athletic) associations also submit proposals for us to study. But my point is let’s take it one step at a time. Let’s start with conditioning then talk about actual games later,” he added.

IATF Resolution No. 68 issued last Sept. 3 allowed the training of student athletes to resume in areas under general community quarantine and modified general community quarantine.

The Commission on Higher Education has been tasked to come up with guidelines on the resumption of training.

The Philippines has logged more than 257,000 COVID-19 cases, the highest in Southeast Asia.