It has been a year like no other in 2020 and with everything that has occurred, it has highlighted the importance of infection control in community sport settings, calling for adaptations to best practice and adjusting to the ‘new normal’.

On Tuesday December 8, Sports Medicine Australia held its first interactive face to face workshop since March – the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canberra was the destination for the return to face to face Professional Development, with an expert panel that included Dr Robert Reid, Associate Professor Julie Cooke and Physiotherapist Daniel Tait discussing all things Infection Control in Community Sport

This workshop was paramount in explaining and showcasing the importance of Sports Trainers and Medical Professionals in creating a COVIDsafe Australia for community sport.

The panel covered important topics surrounding COVID-19 such as characteristics, incubation time, hospitalisation rate and case fatality rate, as well as, education and training, personal infection control and protocols to support infection control within sporting teams

Over the course of the 90-minute presentation, the panel interacted with the audience and discussed the importance of the COVIDsafe App implemented by the Australian Government to trace contact between individuals and groups such as sporting teams and athletes between games.

The audience brought a wide range of experience from sports trainers to medical professionals, allowing for collaboration and exchange of ideas from such diverse areas of sports medicine.

This workshop highlighted that it is everyone’s responsibility in the community to protect not only ourselves but our peers, using the four-point COVID safe plan.

Plan, Prepare, Respond, Recover.