WHO/Public Health
Presently we have over 8,600 confirmed cases with > 100 deaths or 3 per 1 million population in Canada which continues to rise. Canada’s death rate is at approximately 1% of confirmed cases.
Canada is still in the early phase of the rapidly rising epidemic curve, as is the USA where the peak is expected to be approximately mid April. Although the peak in Canada is likely to be less severe than US our peak may be delayed by a few weeks. This may be due to the early effect of our isolation efforts which we will not see for another week or two or the viral strain. This means that social isolation efforts will likely need to continue at least through sometime in May (this is all theoretical mathematical modeling at present). On a positive front there are some very early indications that the social distancing and other measures in Canada may be working.
Worldwide there appear to be 3 or 4 different strains of the COVID-19 virus with varying severity that have yet to be confirmed. Italy has an 11% mortality rate and similar to Spain, with a Strain that appears to have originated from Wuhan. In Germany the mortality rate is closer to 0.8% and this strain likely originated from Shanghai. Which strain has infected Canada is yet to be determined and may be different from cluster to cluster, but we still need to make every effort across Canada to restrict transmission no matter which strain we have in our region.
We are presently observing a low but steady trend of local transmission cases from China, Japan, Singapore as restrictions are relaxed. This second “wave” is a concern and will also determine how long we need to enforce self-isolation measures.
IOC/IPC
We are grateful to have confirmed dates from the IOC/ IPC and Tokyo 2020 for the Games. This now enables everyone to begin focused planning and fill any “gaps" in training / acclimatisation plans that became evident for this year. IOC and IPC are working closely with the IFs regarding re scheduled seasons and new qualifying events etc. We encourage all NSFs to work closely with your coaches, ISTs and CMOs to make any adjustments to any plans that were in place for 2020 as needed and to follow your IFs re any new qualification processes etc.
Training
As per the previous updates we strongly encourage athletes to take this enforced self-isolation period to work with their Coaches, HPDs, IST and CMOs to address any known biomechanical and physical deficiencies that are easily addressed with home training and NOT to be attempting to reach peak performance this year (the rationale has been addressed in earlier releases).
It is probable that athletes may not be able to resume “normal” training for 2-3 months given the epidemic predictions and this will need to be integrated into any YTP planning etc (remember China is now only 3 months post initial isolation measures) but this does not mean that we cannot take full advantage of this opportunity to address any performance gaps or biomechanical deficiencies etc.
Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES)
CCES has discontinued in-person testing at this stage but whereabouts are still required as before. This is fully explained in the CCES link
HERE.
AN UPDATE WILL BE PROVIDED EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 4:00 PM EDT OR AS REQUIRED.
