We asked the Minister of Health about the athletes request but he said that the ministry needs more time - despite sports being banned for over a year. He cautioned that if they are too quick to open the country back up, COVID could get out of control.
Hon Michel Chebat, Minister of Health
"We're just asking for a little bit more patience, I can tell you that the Minister of Sports Kevin Bernard has been working with the different associations, they have presented to us protocols under which they believe they could operate. The Ministry of Health and Wellness, we are reviewing those protocols and I am sure pretty soon you're going to be seeing our athletes back to doing what they do best."
"It goes back to the whole contact sports, it goes back to the whole human interaction, we had to develop protocols. They have been doing a lot of work in terms of they themselves have been coming up with protocols, so it's just a process, it's not intended to hurt anybody or to unnecessarily restrain anybody, we just have to be very precautious, the last thing we want is the open everything at one time then we go back to where we were in September/October last year, we don't want that to happen. So there's going to a gradual reopening of all of our sectors once we see the numbers remain low."
Today at the athletes press conference, we asked for their response to the Minister's statements. They simply said: we're done waiting.
Bryton Codd, Athlete Commissioner Volleyball
"We have been patient for almost a year and let me be very clear: from last year Shane stated that the regulations for their sports was finish in May. We were in July, August - because it was in August when they shut down the country again, but we had sent in our regulations again to be able to practice again. We have been patient. Our patience as athletes is running thin and it is time that athletes stop sitting down in silence and just waiting for things to happen in this country and start voicing their opinions and I think right now it's just a plea to decisions makers and the government that we have already waited. In fact I sat in a meeting with my other volleyball members with the acting director of health service in February and the acting health director at that time had lobbied for sports to be reopen and if our chief medical person could have lobbied for sports to be open the why has it not been considered by the decision makers. That's very mind boggling to me. It's ridiculous really that we can go to other countries and train and compete and we are representing our country and we can't even train in our own country. There are so many leagues out there that if you're not able to test for example like the NBA did, they created a bubble. They have tested their athletes. If we are not able to do that there are other ways in which you can compete and train."
