This afternoon at 4pm Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the alert levels currently in place (Auckland in Level 3, rest of New Zealand in Level 2) will decrease as of 6am Sunday Morning.
At 6am on Sunday morning, Auckland will drop to Alert Level 2. The rest of New Zealand will drop to Alert Level 1.
Further communication regarding the Rebel Sport 3X3 NZ Basketball Secondary Schools Champs will be provided next week.
Basketball under Alert 2:
Basketball New Zealand’s stance remains the same as it did in September 2020 when we issued guidance around basketball and hosting tournaments at Alert 2.
We are supportive of events if they are held in line with the intentions of the Government’s Alert Level Guidelines and where strong health and safety precautions to combat the spread of COVID-19 are applied.
If operating at Alert Level 2, basketball providers should proceed with caution and remember:
- Hosts should not operate events with gatherings of over 100 people. The Government limit on total gatherings at Alert Level 2 is 100. This requirement is to decrease the chance of spread. In case there is some confusion about how this rule should be applied, Basketball New Zealand is clear in our view, as is School Sport NZ and Sport NZ view that was given to us last September: The 100-person limit applies to the whole event. For example, it is not ok to operate an event over two venues with separate gatherings, then cross teams over later in the event for final rounds thereby creating new sets of 100 to do so. This would be an attempt to ‘work around’ the COVID-19 restrictions, it is risky and unsafe, and not in keeping with the intentions of the Government’s guidelines.
- It may help to read this webpage outlining considerations if operating under the mass gathering restrictions of 100.
Reminder of Level 1:
Under Alert Level 1 the disease is contained in New Zealand, but COVID-19 is uncontrolled overseas and there is isolated household transmission occurring.
The main controls under Alert Level 1 are border restrictions and managed isolation or quarantine for people entering the country.
Basketball under Alert Level 1 looks like much like it did pre-COVID-19, except with border restrictions. There are no restrictions on businesses and services, no restrictions on gathering, no requirements for physical distancing, although all businesses and services must display a QR code for contact tracing purposes. It is important to remain vigilant and continue to practice good hygiene to minimise the risk of community transmission. In Alert Level 1 we should be vigilant in maintaining these good practices so that we are prepared to quickly move into higher alert levels if we need to. More here.
Further reminders:
- Ensure you are meeting the contract tracing and hygiene requirements as outlined on the Government’s COVID-19 website.
- If you have questions about sports operations at alert levels, please first refer to Sport New Zealand’s Alert guidance here.
- Further Sport NZ guidance on how to manage day to day activities and events as part of pandemic planning and operational management can be found here.
- The Government’s COVID-19 website can be found here.
- All our COVID-19 Updates are available here.
