Monday 16 March
In light of COVID-19, Touch Football Australia (TFA), in collaboration with Queensland Touch Football and the New South Wales Touch Association, has developed a position on the running of Touch Football competitions around the country. Click here.
Based on an assessment of government and health department information that has been released to date, TFA advises that competitions or events of under 500 attendees in the one location at any one time can continue to run.
Affiliates should implement additional hygiene measures to minimise the potential of contracting this virus (or any cold or flu) and passing it on to others. You can help keep your players, affiliate/club members and visitors healthy by encouraging them to practice good hygiene and social distancing before, during and after games.
What can we do at our Affiliates and Clubs to minimise the risk of infection?
The following additional measures are encouraged for participants, coaches and volunteers:
- Placing additional hand sanitisers with supporting signage around your venue.
- Placing instructions/guidance on hand washing in bathrooms.
- Thorough and regular sterilisation of surfaces, including bathrooms, benches, ATM machines and all touch points such as door handles, escalator rails, lift buttons etc.
- Continued adherence to food safety management standards.
- Practice social distancing and avoid shaking players hands, hi-fives.
- Avoid sharing water bottles and towels.
- If using ice baths have a shower prior to entering the bath.
These are in line with standard protocols to reduce the risk of infection.
Please DO NOT attend training sessions or participate in any competitions or events if you are unwell or experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Competitions/Events over 500 attendees
If you run a competition or event that is likely to have 500 people together at the one time, we encourages you to employ strategies to reduce the number of people on-site to less than 500 such as:
- Scheduling larger gaps between time slots
- Splitting across multiple venues or days
- Discouraging spectator attendance
- Consider restructuring the draw(s) (where possible)
If you cannot mitigate less than 500 persons in attendance at any one time, you are required to postpone or suspend your competition/event indefinitely.
QTF Event Outlook
Some immediate decisions have been made regarding the cancellation of QTF’s upcoming events. We encourage Affiliates to take on board the recommendations and advice and conduct an event risk assessment and cancel any event or tournament that includes 500+ people to be held in the next 30 days.
QTF will continue to follow advice from the government health authorities and TFA and will provide updates as they come to hand in this rapidly changing environment.
Proceeding
- Affiliate competitions of 500 or less (Affiliates with competitions larger will need to restructure)
- State of Origin Selection Camps – 28 -29 March 2020 & 4 – 5 April 2020
Under Review
- State of Origin Competition (June 2020)
- Junior State Cup, Hervey Bay (July 2020)
Cancelled
- Cas Cup (March 2020)
- Junior State Cup North (April 2020)
For further information please visit:
https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19
https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert
If you have any queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact the QTF team via admin@qldtouch.com.au.
