Masking, vaccinations, testing: State updates guidance for high school sports in 2021-22 school year
The Washington state Department of Health updated its guidance for the 2021-22 school year on Wednesday to include guidance for athletics. Here are some important points for high school athletics.
- Universal masking is required by all athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and support personnel when in weight rooms, regardless of vaccination status. The state’s guidance says that weight rooms are high-risk indoor settings, “often poorly ventilated, crowded and used by athletes from sports of multiple contact levels, as well as PE students.”
- Masks are not required for athletes while competing in low-contact or moderate-contact sports indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
- Masks are not required for fully vaccinated athletes competing in high-contact indoor sports, such as basketball and wrestling. Masks are also not required for unvaccinated athletes competing in high-contact indoor sports, if they participate in screening testing.
We wrote recently about how unvaccinated student-athletes might face more barriers to compete during the upcoming school year. That’s indeed the case. Twice a week, screening testing will be required for all unvaccinated athletes in high-contact indoor sports (basketball, wrestling and water polo). Fully-vaccinated athletes, meanwhile, do not have to participate in screening testing.
Any athlete who tests positive will be excluded and removed from the event they’re participating in. The difference will be who else has to sit out following a positive test. Unvaccinated athletes, coaches or athletic trainers will be required to immediately quarantine if they’ve been in close contact with someone who tests positive. Fully vaccinated participants who have been in close contact with someone who tests positive, meanwhile, should be tested three to five days after the exposure and will be cleared to participate once they receive a negative test.
The key difference is that fully-vaccinated athletes will be able to avoid quarantining and subsequently, missing practices or games, as long as they test negative. Staying on the field or the court with their teammates will likely be incentive enough for plenty of high school athletes to get vaccinated, if they haven’t already. Still, it’s important to note the vaccine will not be mandated and will ultimately be the choice of the individual.
- Masks are not required for outdoor sports of any contact level, such as football and soccer. Masking will be required for all spectators attending indoor K-12 sporting activities, regardless of vaccination status. It will not be required for outdoor sporting events, such as football games on Friday nights.
After a strange 2020-21 school year, with shortened seasons for all sports occurring in late winter and the spring, this school year will look more like a normal year. Football and other traditional spring sports will return to their normal time of year, with games kicking off in September. Fans will be allowed back in games and no capacity restrictions are expected. Postseason district and state tournaments will return, after a year off.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 11:37 AM.
