WDOH Sports Quarantine Guidance

The substantive changes from that used during 2020-21 school year are:

• These apply to some moderate (generally team sports e.g. soccer, field hockey, non-contact lacrosse, etc.) in addition to high risk sports, as defined by NYS.  Tennis, racket sports, crew, etc. will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• Team activities are no longer suspended since enough vaccinated students and staff may permit the continuation of team/sport activities.

Exposure Criteria

For high and some moderate risk sports, transmission risk is high (the basis for being considered “high risk”) regardless of being outdoors or masked and the 15 minute minimum exposure requirement does not apply.

For these high and some moderate risk sports, if the positive player(s) participated in any drills or practices which involved  less than 6 foot distancing, scrimmages, or competitive games while infectious, below are the general guidelines:

1. Team that COVID positive player or coach was on – entire team – all players on the team are considered exposed. Coaches and staff within 6 feet for a cumulative 15 minutes over a 24 hour period during the 2 full days prior to the COVID case’s symptom onset or positive test date (if case has no symptoms) through the latest date the COVID case participated in any team related activity with others, regardless of masking, whether outdoors or vaccinated (same as general definition) are considered exposed and subject to relevant exclusion and quarantine requirements for unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals.
2. During competitive play/games - Opposing team (team without the COVID (+) player or coach) – 
   • All players, or other individuals on the ice, court, or field at any time during competitive play/game, regardless of duration (need not be 15 min) or whether infected player from other team was reportedly on the ice, court, or field at the same time – are considered exposed
   • Coaches, players, or others who were never on the ice, court, or field during competitive play/game and who were never within 6 feet of the COVID positive individual would not be considered exposed
   • Referees and any other staff on the ice, court, or field at any time during competitive play/game are considered exposed

Exclusion Criteria

All unvaccinated individuals meeting the above criteria  must be excluded from practices, games, school etc. and will be subject to quarantine by the WCDH for a minimum of 10 days following their most recent exposure to a COVID-19 case. 

Fully vaccinated individuals (greater than 2 weeks after they have received the second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna), or greater than 2 weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson /J&J/Janssen) meeting the close contact or exposure criteria may continue to attend school, participate in sports, or work if the individual’s vaccination status has been verified e.g. in the NYS Immunization Registry (NYSIIS) (which all schools should have access to) AND the individual has no symptoms.  These individuals must be reported to WCDH on the Excel case-contact listing template with the individual’s vaccination status.  WCDH will routinely contact such individuals to confirm this information and will not issue quarantine orders if confirmed.  Individuals for whom full vaccination or lack of symptoms cannot be confirmed must be excluded will be subject to the same 10 day minimum quarantine as unvaccinated individuals.