Adults will be able to join the kids playing community sport when coronavirus restrictions are lifted at the start of next month, the NSW government has confirmed.
Children’s community sport was slated to resume on July 1 and on Wednesday adult sports were permitted to restart on the same day.
NSW Rugby League chief executive David Trodden welcomed the news for league and all winter sports, stating it would help the community continue to heal after strict measures were introduced to control the COVID-19 threat.
“This is another great result for rugby league across the state of NSW and I thank the NSW government for allowing us to resume,” Mr Trodden said in a statement on Wednesday.
Netball NSW chief executive Carolyn Campbell is delighted by the inclusion of senior levels from July 1.
“We thank … the state government for listening to sporting organisations, community associations and clubs, players, coaches and administrators by aligning the starting dates for both juniors and seniors,” Ms Campbell said in a statement on Wednesday.
The announcement comes days before the June 13 reopening of gyms and other physical fitness centres around the state.
The pandemic forced the closure of such facilities in March.
Crowds at professional sporting events remain off the table with stadium operators told to begin developing coronavirus management plans.
“We have reduced the spread of COVID-19 to the point where further restrictions can be lifted,” NSW Sport Minister Geoff Lee said in a statement.
“It is only because communities have followed the strict social distancing guidelines that this announcement is possible.”
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday said: “We haven’t seen the number of cases increase and that’s a positive thing, and if that stays the case for the next little while we’ll continue to ease restrictions.”
NSW on Wednesday reported three new cases of COVID-19 all among returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The total number of cases recorded in NSW sits at 3117 and there are no patients in intensive care.
Ms Berejiklian on Tuesday she would seek to draw a line in the sand for mass gatherings in NSW after Saturday’s Black Lives Matter protest.
Some 20,000 people on Saturday joined the march in Sydney after the Court of Appeal deemed it lawful less than 15 minutes before starting.
Australian Associated Press