Dear Parents and Players,
Weston Lacrosse Club is required to follow CT-DPH's requirements for a 14-day quarantine for athletes that are exposed to someone with COVID-19. Athletes are required to quarantine for 14 days prior to returning to team sports. A negative PCR test cannot shorten the quarantine period as it relates to returning to team sports.
Below are more details that were published by Connecticut Interscholastic Conference on March 10, 2021.
Quarantine Requirements (Per DPH 3/5/2021) Per DPH, “Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new risk-based guidance and procedures for shortening the required quarantine period for individuals identified as close contacts of a known COVID19 case. As a result, DPH has revised its guidance as well to include options for reducing quarantine periods in some situations from the traditional 14 days. However, both CDC and DPH have made clear that the ability to end quarantine prior to 14 days is conditioned on a person’s ability to continue with daily COVID-19 symptom screening and continuous mask use when outside of the home, as well as the necessity of avoiding gatherings with people who are not in their immediate household, who are over 65 years old, or who have medical conditions that place them at increased risk for COVID-19. This would preclude gathering with other athletes for engagement in team sports prior to completion of a full 14-day quarantine period. As such, regardless of whether a shortened quarantine period allows individuals to engage in daily activities prior to completing a full 14-day post-contact period of separation, athletes, coaches, officials, and other participants should not be allowed to engage in athletic activities until at least 14 days after their quarantine period begins.”
The following guidance and protocols issued by the Connecticut State Department of Education and State Department of Public Health may be referenced when responding to specific COVID scenarios that may occur with school reopening for the 2020-2021 school year. That guidance and protocols can be found at: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/COVID19/Addendum-5-Interim-Guidance-for-Responding-to-COVID-19-Scenarios-in-CT-School-Districts.pdf. If a student tests positive for COVID 19, the school/district must be notified immediately and local DPH must be contacted. The local DPH will direct the appropriate process.
For clarification, it is DPH’s position that a return to athletics should include the full 14-day quarantine period. This means that a student-athlete may return to in-person instruction after a shorter quarantine period (i.e., 10 days), however, must wait the full 14-days prior to returning to athletics.
