Covid-19: What Happens Now?

To get the latest advice on Covid-19 please see nhs.uk/coronavirus

Sport

As of the 16th of March, the government has no longer supported large gatherings, including sports fixtures. This has led to a mass wave of postponements, cancellations, and adjustments across the sporting calendar.

Some of the most dramatic announcements include the suspension of all English Football until at least May, the suspension of all Horse Racing in the UK, and the cancellation of all Football and Cricket in South Africa.

In the rowing sphere HORR, SHORR, and the Boat Race have all been cancelled whilst the future of NSR and Henley hang in the balance:

“The safety and wellbeing of our competitors, Members, spectators and staff is our highest priority and, alongside our key stakeholders, we are constantly reviewing our plans for the 2020 Regatta.”

HRR Press Release 17th March 2020

For rowers – and other athletes – this leaves us in an awkward situation. In the UK at least, there are no official restrictions on sports club training, which means individual clubs are taking their own decisions on how to handle this crisis.

It could be argued that this is, in fact, the best way forward with club leaders knowing the needs of their squad better than anyone. Such a mentality, however, hasn’t prevented both the government and British Rowing coming under fire for their lack of precise information.

British Rowing has – in their latest press release – included a handy list of measures that clubs may wish to implement. The full article can be found here.

The first category of methods concerns “reducing the risk profile” with measures such as enhances cleaning protocols, limiting group size, preventing visitor access to the site and limiting indoor activities.

The second centres around considering who in the club may be at a higher risk. Once these persons have been identified reducing the size of training groups, moving egos outdoors and staggering training times may become effective measures to limit the spread of disease and protect the more vulnerable.

For now, at least, Caversham will remain open, with the remainder of the Olympic selection process taking place “behind closed doors”. British Rowing highlight that staff and athletes will follow an intensive hygiene regime to limit the spread of infection, with the aim of sending a full team to Tokyo to compete at the Olympics.

Education

Health professionals have made clear that younger generations fall into a low-risk category when it comes to Covid-19, and as such, the decision to close schools across the UK would be to enforce social distancing and to limit congregation of young persons that could potentially carry the disease to those with less able immune systems.

It came as no surprise, therefore, on Wednesday when the PM and the Education Secretary simultaneously announced the indefinite closure of most schools in the UK.

This was accompanied by the confirmation that A-level and GCSE Exams would not take place this year, which has since led to confusion in regards to how qualifications will be awarded.

The Education Secretary alongside Universities UK has promised that this year’s A-Level students will not miss out on the opportunity to go to university in September.

Speaking to the BBC, Paul Whiteman of the National Association of Headteachers said:

“[There are] many complicated issues to address… we have more questions than answers at the moment”.

Paul Whiteman

Society

The most noticeable impact of Covid-19 on our daily lives has arguably been the trend of panic buying that has grown into a global pandemic of its own in recent weeks.

But this is only the part of the story that we can see. Perhaps the most troubling, sobering reality is that no one really understands what’s going on.

The daily press briefings held by Number 10 are a good political visual but do little to effectively answer the questions from the media. It seems as if the country is slowly sliding into a quasi-lockdown; not that you’ll hear anyone in Whitehall call it that…

There’s also several elephants in the room that question uncomfortable truths: Can our NHS cope? How many loved ones will die? How long will this go on for?

The short answer is we don’t know, and it seems at the moment that neither does anyone else. All we can say is we haven’t heard much about Brexit recently…

Conclusion:

This disease spreading across all regions of the globe and is set to have profound consequences for us all. Rowing and other team sports will almost certainly suffer a long term blow.

That’s why at JRN HQ we’re going to be working night and day to bring you the best content on rowing, and the wider news stories that will affect us all.

We want the be responsible journalists, but we’re only a small team. If you have feedback do let us know, it really is appreciated!

For more on the Cover-19 outbreak from JRN see the hub

For the latest NHS guidance see nhs.uk/coronavirus

Ed Evans

Opinions Editor

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