The COVID-19 cases in the United States have been rapidly increasing. With over 50 million cases and over 796,000 deaths in the past 30 days. Over 79% of the US is considered to have high covid transmission. The CIAC is doing the best they can to try and keep student athletes safe during their sports seasons.

Through the many different phases of the pandemic, the CIAC has adapted to different precautions to help athletes stay healthy and safe. The most recent update was placed on November 29th, 2021. This is placing the restrictions for the winter sports this year. The main idea they are focusing on is who has to wear masks when. 

Since many adults and teenagers now have the vaccine, that can be considered a small shield to keep you safer. When people started getting vaccinated, the masks rules changed, saying if you were vaccinated you did not have to wear a mask because you were protected. Now, the CIAC’s new rules for athletes allow those who are vaccinated to remove their masks during activity, but keep them on at all other times. 

However, for those who are not vaccinated, the CIAC requires them to wear a mask the entire time for most sports (some are different and can become dangerous wearing a mask because of things like covering their eyes). 

At this rate, the pandemic is not going to get better anytime soon, so there will continue to be new restrictions to help everyone be safe through all of it. New variants of COVID are emerging frequently. As of right now, the Omicron variant is the newest, and possibly the worst. 

As the winter sports season is fast approaching, things are only getting worse. The new restrictions on mask wearing will not cover nearly enough to keep these athletes safe. For the next resort, the CIAC has decided that the best thing would be to postpone the start of the season for some sports. 

Although this is not ideal for all teens going through this, the CIAC is doing everything possible to keep everyone healthy and safe.