Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) – UPDATE 11/05/2020

WPA ANNOUNCEMENT


Novel Coronavirus

(COVID-19)

UPDATE – 11/05/2020


I hope you and you families are staying safe and well.

The WPA Executive Committee has been closely monitoring the situation with regard to the official advice from the UK and Welsh Governments and NHS and NHS Wales.

Since the lockdown was introduced, the Executive Committee have held several meetings, the latest being this morning – following the announcements by the Welsh Government First Minister and the Prime Minister.

As we are sure you are aware, there are now some slight differences between the positions of the Welsh and UK Governments, but as this matter is devolved, the announcements by the Prime Minister relate ONLY to England.

With this in mind, the position in Wales in relation to playing sports remains unchanged. The First Minister, Mark Drakeford, made the following statement on Sunday 10th May:

I set out the modest changes to the stay-at-home regulations we are making in Wales on Friday. These will come into force tomorrow afternoon.

Here in Wales, we will change the regulations so people can exercise more often and allow garden centres to open, if they can comply with social distancing.

Our advice has not changed in Wales.

  • Wherever you can you should stay at home.
  • If you need to leave home for work, exercise or shopping, you should stay local and stay alert.
  • Coronavirus has not gone away
  • The way we behave over the weeks ahead will continue to have a profound impact on our NHS and our ability to save lives.
  • If you go out, stay local and stay safe.

The Prime Minister also set out his roadmap for the future. This is at an early stage because it depends on how the virus behaves over the coming weeks and months.

Two weeks ago, I published a framework to lead Wales out of the pandemic.

This has helped us decide that schools will not return to normal on June 1.

We will continue to make decisions, which are right for Wales, using information and expert advice about how coronavirus is circulating here to keep us safe.

The health of the public is paramount. It will inform our decisions and we will continue to inform you as we plan for our future in the weeks ahead.

Thank you for all your help and support. Together we can do this.

However, in an attempt to be ready for a possible further relaxation of the restrictions and a resumption of playing of sports in some format in the new future, we have begun to work on a draft updated playing calendar, as well as a guidance document which will outline the conditions and behaviours that will need to be adhered to.

These will be published in due course, when we have a clearer picture of the government advice.

Some of you may have seen similar guidelines on social media that have already been published by a number of European federations, and it is likely that any document we publish will be very similar.

Of course, it is highly likely that, even if we do resume play later this year, many of you may feel that you are not comfortable in this kind of sporting/social environment, and this is completely understandable.

You may be interested (though not surprised) to know that our membership profile is less than favourable for safe resumption of play:

WPA Member Ages above Number of Members WPA % of membership
80 20 7.8%
70 102 39.5%
65 145 56.2%
60 171 66.3%
50 221 85.7%

The EC will continue to monitor the situation and will issue further updates as we have them.

In the meantime, we hope you and your families stay healthy.

 

REMEMBER:

 

#STAY HOME

#PROTECT THE NHS

#SAVE LIVES

Robert Pugh

National President.