With COVID-19 cases on the rise throughout the district, Boston Public Schools paused all games and practices through Jan. 10, and potentially longer.
In a statement, the BPS athletic department said multiple programs have gone on pause since the winter season started Nov. 29. Most of the decisions to pause have happened over the past two weeks in concurrence with a rise in COVID-19 cases throughout Boston.
The pause means City League programs with plans to face nonleague opponents during holiday tournaments will be unable to compete. Teams will not be able to practice until at least Jan. 10, when the department plans to evaluate the situation. That includes the GIO boys’ and girls’ hockey tournaments at the Murphy Rink in South Boston, scheduled to start Sunday, as well as the East Boston Deep Freeze Tournament.
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Here is the statement from BPS Athletics:
“Under the advice of the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Public Schools will pause all athletics games and practices in response to the recent confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in schools. The pause will remain in effect through at least the end of January 10th, 2022.
“In the last four weeks, there has been a consistent increase in the number of students and staff testing positive for COVID19 district-wide. Boston and the Commonwealth are in the midst of a surge of cases that are rivaling the numbers of cases we saw last January (2021).
“Since the start of the 2021 winter athletic season on November 29, multiple athletic programs have had to pause activities due to new COVID cases. The overwhelming majority of the pauses took place in the last 7-10 days, which is consistent with the exponential increase in cases we’re seeing city-wide.”