The New Hampshire Union-Leader reported that New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu ordered a two-week statewide shutdown of all indoor ice rinks. This is because the state identified “six ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks among hockey teams that spread to two dozen public schools”. Amateur hockey and college rinks should be able to reopen on Thursday, October 29. According to the article:
Over the past two months, the state has identified 158 cases of players and staff contracting COVID-19, including 117 linked directly to eight different outbreaks from youth hockey and another 41 cases tied to that activity. –Dr. Benjamin Chan {paraphrased by Kevin Landrigan, NH Union-Leader}
Dr. Benjamin Chan, the New Hampshire State Epidemiologist reportedly said, “We haven’t seen a lot of spread and transmission from other sports. It appears to be associated with hockey.”
This decision comes in the aftermath of last week’s discovery of a COVID-19 outbreak associated with three teams playing out of The Rinks at Exeter. The initial scope of this outbreak was 12 players who are age 16 plus one staff member from the Seacoast Performance Academy. Two teams of 14 and 15-year-old players were also shutdown as a precaution. At the time, it was thought that the earliest date that players could return was October 19.
In fact COVID-19 cases associated with hockey practice have been breaking out in New Hampshire at least since late August, as we discussed here on RinkAtlas.
Reaction to Governor’s Order is Swift on Twitter
Many members of the New Hampshire Hockey Community reacted angrily to Governor Sununu’s order. Here are a few examples:
He has never worked hand in hand with us. As a matter of fact I have been to feel like I'm a criminal … this is nobody's fault….you are locking us down ..taking away all our rights as Americans! Live free or die! @NJrCyclones https://t.co/XlaMOsCfGX
— Coach Bill Flanagan (@cyclonesjrcoach) October 16, 2020
Let parents make decisions months and weeks of hard work down the drain with events cancelled the day before they were going to happen!
— Casey Kesselring (@CaseyKesselring) October 16, 2020
Governor. I am a new citizen of NH and registered to vote today. The decision on shutting rinks down is ill advised and not supported by data. It punishes youth athletes from age 4-21 and all family members. It affects a massive base of constituents. This was a bad decision.
— Charlie Ross (@Chazb0) October 16, 2020
Which is not say that some weren’t in favor of his decision:
Hang in there, in the face of the withering criticism from the hockey dads.
— Michael Megliola (@michael_jvon) October 16, 2020
Note to Readers
Due to a Twitter service interruption, the tweet we tried to send in the five o’clock Eastern Time hour could not be sent until almost 9pm:
FLASH: New Hampshire Health Department orders statewide two-week pause for indoor ice hockey, effective immediately due to COVID-19 outbreaks. More from RinkAtlas as the situation develops. https://t.co/ORGs118yD5 from @WMUR9
— RinkAtlas (@RinkAtlas) October 16, 2020