Ottawa Public Health has released another real-world case study of how the novel coronavirus can spread through a single sports team, resulting in 89 total COVID-19 cases and 445 people needing to self-isolate.
OPH first shared the example of an outbreak linked to a hockey team in early November, at the time showing in a diagram how 60 people and seven outbreaks were connected to one asymptomatic individual attending a practice in October.
At the time, the local public health unit said it was still doing contact tracing and could find more cases connected to the original outbreak.
On Friday, OPH released an updated graphic showing the full extent of the spread.
In the end, 89 people tested positive for the virus in connection with the original case and 445 people needed to self-isolate due to their high risk of exposure.
Four outbreaks were declared in schools and one outbreak affected a daycare centre.
Ten sports teams were ultimately affected by the original outbreak.
OPH is sharing the latest case study, as it has done previously with examples of a wedding and a community barbecue, to show how rapidly the virus can spread without precautions in place.
The original hockey practice saw players not consistently wearing masks, carpooling to the arena with others not in their household and mingling before and after the practice without physical distancing.
Many people on the team also played or coached on other teams in the city, spreading the virus through Ottawa’s organized sports network.
OPH recommends practicing individual sports, playing outdoors whenever possible or participating in sports, such as badminton or tennis, where physical distance is built into the game. The public health unit also recommends limiting participating in group sports to one team or league.
Other COVID-19 precautions, including physical distancing, mask wearing and hand washing, should always be observed.
OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard currently shows no active outbreaks on sports teams in Ottawa.
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