Halfway through the week and things are steady regarding the number of COVID-19 patients being cared for at The University of Kansas Health System. 20 patients are being treated for the virus, same as yesterday and as far back as last Friday. 8 of those patients are in the ICU, up from 6 yesterday. Doctors say the steady numbers are encouraging given that we’re two weeks out from the early phases of society reopening. They say we can’t let our guard down, and we must be on the lookout for a potential surge in two weeks after the weekend partying at the Lake of the Ozarks
David Smith, MD, Youth Sports Medicine Medical Director and KSHHAA Advisory Committee Member joined the panel to talk about new guidelines recommended for youth sports. Royals trainer Nick Kenney teamed up with team doctor Vincent Key, MD, to offer pro tips for keeping young athletes at their peak emotionally and physically during a pandemic, plus debate if now is when athletes including weekend warriors should get procedures/surgeries they’ve been putting off?
Dr. Smith described KSHHAA guidelines for returning to youth sports activities on June 1 and says parents, coaches and athletes must all be on the same page and careful no matter when they return. He added that he hopes the kids will be smarter than the adults in the Ozarks. All sports, he says, will have to adapt to social distancing rules and must make necessary changes to their particular sport. Baseball, for example, will probably need a parent or coach in the dugout to enforce the rules…if players are even allowed in dugouts. He says if a family decides to let their child play on a team, they all have an individual responsibility to follow the safety rules. He warns that it just takes one player to infect a whole team. He says the same rules must be in effect for marching bands and cheerleaders. He added that youth sports, since they will begin sooner, will be a model for the pros. As for wrestling, a sport that requires close contact between participants, he says that’s not going to happen.
Dr. Key says ultimately parents must decide whether to let their kids play this summer. He stresses the need for caution if there are family members who are immunocompromised or have other medical conditions that put them at risk of catching COVID-19 from their young athlete. He says athletes are creatures of habit and some habits like high fiving after a home run must stop. He talked about safe ways for athletes to still get weight training. He says parents and kids must realize that just because you miss a summer doesn’t mean your athletic career is over. He also says many of his “weekend warrior” patients are beginning to come back for surgical procedures, and he described the steps he and his staff take with each procedure to make sure it’s safe.
Nick Kenney said at the pro level, players are also chomping at the bit to play. All of the Royals have been in constant contact with coaches and trainers with the goal of being ready to play ball with two weeks’ notice. He says the game will look different this year. Catchers and umpires will probably be wearing face masks under their regular masks. Dugouts will also have someone monitoring the rules such as six-foot distancing, individual water bottles, plenty of hand sanitizer and perhaps the toughest rule to enforce among pro baseball players…no spitting! As for fans, he says a task force is meeting weekly to discuss ways to safely allow them to watch from the stands. But he warns that may not happen right away, and games will probably be played in empty stadiums for a while.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System said there’s no one size fits all rule and each sport must figure out how to mitigate close interaction. He says some sports will be easier to adapt to mask wearing than others…and running up and down a field with a mask can be difficult, especially if that mask becomes wet with sweat. He says masks must stay dry. He and the other doctors on the panel all said they would let their kids play sports this summer. But they all stressed that would happen only with the assurance that the league, coaches and parents all agree to and will abide by the right precautions for their sport.
Steve Stites, MD, chief medical officer at the health system, reminded us that there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about COVID-19. He says parents, not kids, must make the ultimate decision to let their kids play. He says they must be convinced the league and the team will follow safety guidelines and be sure there’s nobody at home that might be at risk. He says kids won’t permanently be scarred for life if they don’t participate, but you could have a permanent loss of life if they participate and bring something home. He reminds us that we’re all in this together and the actions we take every day will determine how we do.
Thursday, May 28 at 8:00 a.m. is the next daily briefing call. KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman joins Dr. Stites and Dr. Hawkinson to talk about learning as we go and why and when we will ask to take your temperature. And, Chelsey Smith with the Community Blood Center checks back in with an update on donations.
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