Doctor advises on return to sports

 A return to youth sports may be providing a taste of normalcy to area kids and fans, but one expert is advising caution and risk-benefit analysis when conducting athletic events.

 Dr. David Soma, a pediatrician and pediatric sports medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. met with reporters last Tuesday to discuss the risks and benefits of conducting sports in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 His overall message was for parents and sports participants to balance the individual and collective risks and benefits, while continuing to take precautions such as wearing masks, social distancing and practicing good hand hygiene.

 “The thing that makes this virus a little more tricky is that people can spread even before they have symptoms, or people can spread it while they’re asymptomatic and never develop symptoms,” Soma said.

 Soma added that returning to sports starts at the individual level for each family. Each potential participant should consider conditions that may make them high-risk, as well as anyone that is in close contact with the participating child. High-risk conditions may include but are not limited to: obesity, chronic lung disease, chronic heart disease, being immunocompromised or having sickle cell disease.

 “If they do (have any of these conditions), then you may really have to take a critical look at the environment or the sport in which they’re playing, and determine if that is worth the risk or not,” Soma said.

 When weighing those risks for each individual, Soma said it is also worth considering how a child’s well-being can be positively impacted physically, mentally and emotionally by sports participation. He said the discussion for many should be as a family, in order to determine risks and benefits.

 “Fortunately, children are much more mildly affected than adults, but remember that children do have to go home, or be around other people,” Soma said. “So if they’re gonna be around other individuals that may be high-risk, we need to be mindful of that as well.”

 Soma also covered another key question for many participants of when they should return after contracting COVID-19. He stressed that any athlete suspected of getting the virus should immediately remove themselves from the sport as soon as possible, and contact tracing should begin to determine others at risk. Anyone else suspected of having close contact should also be quarantined and monitored for the development of symptoms. For an athlete to return, Soma recommended a quarantine of at least 10 to 14 days from the onset of symptoms. The athlete should be fever-free, and monitored as they return to action slowly.

 While recent attention has been given to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart found to have developed among some COVID-19 patients, Soma said the existing data is difficult to project upon younger patients.

 “There was some research most recently coming out of Germany where they’ve seen a higher rate of this inflammation seen on cardiac MRI, but that population was a little bit older than the youth population,” Soma said. “Most of those people were symptomatic with the disease, so it really is hard to extrapolate all of that data down to youth, who are typically more mildly affected, as well as those that may be more asymptomatic or mildly affected with the disease.”

 He added that if a child were to experience a moderate or severe case of COVID-19, an evaluation with their primary care provider or a cardiologist may be advisable before returning to sports.

 Other methods of mitigating risk of spreading COVID-19 during sporting events that Soma discussed included:

 • Screening before practices and games for COVID-19 symptoms or exposure to others known to have COVID-19.

 • Keeping roll of practice attendees and those sharing group transportation, especially if splitting buses, in the event contact tracing is later required.

 • Allowing for athletes or parents to help mitigate close contacts by transporting themselves to events

 • Making sure all attendees of an event are also practicing the wearing of masks, social distancing and good hand hygiene as much as possible

 • Avoiding high-fives, fist-bumps and other celebrations that would infringe upon social distancing efforts

 • Understanding that sports conducted indoors and/or in close proximity are of greater risk for spreading the virus than those that allow for more natural social distancing and occur outdoors