Dear Open Skiff community,
Below you will find advice on COVID-19 outbreak and how it affects our World Championships.
We are receiving questions regarding the Open Skiff World Championships scheduled to take place in Sardinia, Italy 12th – 18th July 2020.
Clearly COVID-19 is a major concern for us and the health of our community is the highest priority. The continued increase in the number of cases, and the number of affected countries over the last few days and weeks is alarming, and we understand your concerns.
As of March 6th we are fully committed to hosting the World Championships, as planned. At this moment outdoor activities, such as sailing, are not restricted in Italy. Based on this map Sardinia has had two cases of COVID-19 confirmed so far. Having said that we are by no means experts on viruses or epidemics we will be following prescriptions from regional, national authorities and governing bodies.
World Sailing have just issued a document concerning the matter including information on future events. This includes information about the World Cup held in Genoa, Italy in April. An extract from the document is below:
“The general risk for sailing events is considered as much lower, compared to indoor events, due to lower crowd density and nature of the contact between participants (not in direct contact with other competitors). The possibility to carefully layout an event venue also lowers the risk. The access to the sailing venue by non-registered participants can be minimized, and necessary meetings (i.e. hearings, technical meetings) can be controlled and organized in an. adequate manner. The age of participants also contributes to lower risk assessment for sailing…”
Taking the above into account we will continue to work to prepare the event, whilst monitoring the situation on a regular basis.
Kind regards
Piotr Oleksiak
OSCA Secretary
