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CORONA VIRUS UPDATE

23 Mar 2020

ALL POLO IN VICTORIA HAS BEEN CANCELLED WITH EFFECT TODAY. The VPA thanks you for your support in the 2019/20 season and look forward to welcoming everyone back for the 2020 Melbourne Cup Polo. Keep tuned to the website over the winter for important news updates.

The Australian Government has announced new community sport guidelines to combat the spread of COVID-19, these are effective immediately. All polo must be run in accordance with the AHPPC COVID-19 Community Sport Guidelines. In addition to the community sport guidelines being implemented, the APF advises that any polo that is played at clubs is under these additional conditions until further notice:

• All tournaments are to be suspended from Monday 23rd March (those run this weekend 20-22 March must comply with the Australian Government Community Sport Guidelines)
• Clubs can run chukkas and games within their local zone/community only, there is to be no inter-district travel. Players are restricted to play within their local region only (no interstate or inter region travel needed for the player to get from where they are residing to where they are playing).
• Clubs must maintain a participant/attendance register for each event they hold, teams must submit full attendance details (names) for their players/grooms/coaches/other attendees PRIOR to the event VIA EMAIL (and any changes from this list post event). The name of everyone present on the day must be recorded.

AHPPC COVID-19 Community Sport Guidelines:

All community sport participants must play a role to help reduce the transmission of COVID 19, including those organising, attending or supporting attendance at these activities.

Participants should not attend and participate in Community Sport if they:

• have travelled internationally or been exposed to a person with COVID-19 in the preceding 14 days; or
• are at a high risk including the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Attendance at Community Sport activities

Only essential participants should attend activities, i.e. players, coaches, match officials, staff and volunteers involved in operations and parents/guardians of participants.

All players, visitors should practise the following social distancing measures at Community Sporting activities:

• Players, visitors and officials should minimise physical contact as much as is practicable, for example no shaking hands, no walking out with player mascots, no pre- or post-match celebrations and no celebrating between players during the match.
• When spectating or attending a game or training session, ensure a distance of 1.5 metres is kept between yourself and others.
• Access to change rooms should be restricted solely to players, officials and essential staff.
• If spectating, try to maintain 1.5 metres between yourself and others.
• It is recommended that sporting teams, including school sporting teams, maintain local competitions only, with no inter-district, or inter-club travel. As with all gatherings, basic protective measures should be observed, such as regular hand hygiene practices before, during and after the match, do not share drink bottles, and avoid touching your face.

It is acknowledged that contact sports have a greater risk of transmission than other sports, and as such, should be considered on a case-by-case basis. However, other mitigation strategies for match socialisation and contact must be employed to reduce the risk to players, visitors, and officials more broadly.

General hygiene measures at facilities

Facilities should ensure that:

• spaces at each facility, surfaces and objects are regularly cleaned with disinfectant
• provide hand washing guidance
• promote regular and thorough hand washing by staff and participants
• provide sanitising hand rub dispensers in prominent places around the event (particularly entry or high use areas such as a registration desk, change rooms, toilets or kiosk)
• make sure dispensers are regularly refilled
• promote exclusion of ill persons

Gyms, indoor fitness centres and swimming pools

Settings like gyms, indoor fitness centres and swimming pools are not required to close at this time providing they meet these requirements for social distancing and hand hygiene. Such venues should take actions to ensure regular high standards of environmental cleaning take place.

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