Following the Government’s announcement on Monday lifting COVID-19 restrictions, we can confirm that community netball will be able to move to Step 4 of our netball roadmap (shown here) from Monday 19 July.
This means that netball can return in its standard form on court without any COVID-19 rule modifications, plus tournaments can now go ahead.
Any competitions that are currently being played using rule modifications, for instance leagues, should conclude with the rule modifications in place so that the integrity of the competition is protected. Any training activities or new competitions can be planned using the standard rules of netball.
Whilst this is an exciting moment for our sport, the safety of the Netball Family is of the utmost importance to us. So, to enable the game on court to return to normal whilst still reducing the risk of transmission, we will leave in place some of the off court risk mitigations, for example sanitisation protocols. Also, in line with Government guidance anyone that tests positive for COVID-19 must not attend any netball activity and should isolate for 10 days.
There will also be a need to continue to complete careful risk assessments that include the management of COVID-19 within netball activity.
Netball organisations should continue to appoint a COVID-19 Officer to support the ongoing management of these off court safety protocols within their club, league, team or organisation.
We are waiting on some final written guidance pertaining to netball from the Government and as soon as we have this, we will be issuing the specific details of everything outlined in this article in our ‘Managing COVID-19 in netball’ guidance. The Netball Family can however now look forward to netball activity with fewer restrictions. Member clubs and leagues have been invited via email to join us on a series of forums next week where we will again provide further detail and answer any questions that arise.
Those planning tournaments this summer should consult our guidance once available as there will be a need for some careful and enhanced risk assessments to be completed so these events can be enjoyed whilst ensuring the safety of all involved.
We would like to thank the Netball Family for their resilience, patience and support this last year. We are proud of how everyone has come together and protected one another, and to see very few cases of COVID-19 reported through netball thanks to everyone’s commitment to understanding, implementing, and following the mitigations in place. We hope you all enjoy some more normality returning to the game on court from 19 July.
