CDC: How Indoor Sports Like Ice Hockey Can Become Covid-19 Coronavirus Outbreaks - Forbes

A new publication in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) described how an indoor ice hockey game led to a Covid-19 coronavirus super-spreader event.

There have also been other reports of outbreaks among ice hockey player including 18 members of the Yale men’s hockey team testing positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus over the past three days.

In the MMWR publication, David Atrubin, Michael Wiese, and Becky Bohinc from the Florida Department of Health detailed what happened after a recreational ice hockey game took place on a Tampa Bay, Florida, area indoor ice rink.

When three members of a health department are describing an ice hockey game, there’s a decent chance that something went awry.

However, a regular ice hockey game, which is what these guys played for 60 minutes, is not social distancing.

Moreover, during an ice hockey game, there’s a lot of heavy breathing.

This type of hockey mask is not going to stop the Covid-19 coronavirus.

The Yale men's ice hockey team, pictured here in a game against Harvard in February 14, 2020, in the ...

This hasn’t been the only time the Covid-19 coronavirus has taken itself to the rink.

For example, on September 14, Carly Baldwin wrote for Patch about a cluster of 13 Covid-19 coronavirus infections among members of youth ice hockey teams that practice at the Middletown Sports Complex in Middletown, NJ.

On October 6, Ariel Hart and Helena Oliviero reported for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on a junior hockey league game between a team from Georgia and a team from North Carolina that have may have left over 40 people infected.

Then, on Friday, Julia Bialek reported for the Yale Daily News that Yale University had moved its Covid-19 alert level up from green to yellow following the revelation that 18 members of the men’s hockey team has tested positive for the SARS-CoV2 over the previous three days.

The National Hockey League (NHL) was able to keep its Stanley Cup playoffs reasonably Covid-19 coronavirus free by placing their coaches and players in social bubbles and aggressively maintaining other virus prevention measures.

Of course, unless you are part of a really serious ice hockey team, such social bubbling may not be a practical option for you.

USA Hockey maintains a website on the Covid-19 coronavirus and offers a tip sheet on precautions that you can take.