SAUCNA’s summer netball competition’s COVID-19 Management Plan finally approved by SA Health
With only hours to go until the scheduled start of the SAUCNA summer netball season, SA Health has approved its COVID plan, much to the relief of the thousands of players.
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Thousands of netballers will get to take to the court this summer season, after SA Health at the eleventh hour approved a COVID Management Plan for the city-based competition.
The approval comes just hours before the SA United Church Netball Association season was scheduled to start at the courts, on the corner of Greenhill Rd and Anzac Highway.
SAUCNA president Mark Walker was pleased the situation had been resolved.
“I’m pretty relieved that we can actually get the season under way, and that the kids can get out there and play sport,” Mr Walker said.
He said the season would start on Wednesday night, after the association had made the “difficult decision” at the start of the week to cancel tonight’s matches.
The approval follows a month of uncertainty for the association, which had submitted its COVID Management Plan to SA Health four weeks ago.
Mr Walker said SA Health had responded a week later, outlining concerns that the number of people at the courts would swell past the 1000 allowed during the changeover between games.
He said the organisation had replied with proposed measures to address this, including shortening quarters from 12 minutes to 10 minutes, to allow more time for the crossover, and having separate entry and exit walkways to the courts.
Mr Walker said despite several follow-up calls to SA Health reminding it of the competition’s start date, it wasn’t until late yesterday the organisation received a response.
This included that people must man the entrance and exit to ensure players and spectators were adhering to the rules and cleaning toilets every hour.
A-frames with entry and exit written on them must also be sourced.
An SA Health spokesperson said at midday on Tuesday that SAUCNA’s COVID Management Plan had been “conditionally approved”.
“We will inspect the site to ensure that the risk-mitigating strategies adequately manage COVID-19 risks once implemented,” they said.
The spokesperson said it could take “several weeks” for plans to be assessed and approved.
“This depends on the nature of the activity, the risks, the complexity, the amount of information obtained and how responsive the applicant is to any requests for further information,” they said.
The summer netball competition is held on Tuesday to Friday nights, with 498 teams – or nearly 5000 players – registered to play.
SAUCNA also hosts a winter competition, but this is played at the home grounds of the participating clubs, as a home-and-away season.
COVID forced the start of this year’s winter season to be delayed from April to June, and the competition was shortened to seven weeks, plus a grand final.
