Facts: Corona rules in two other current national teams
+ Women’s crowns, playing WC in Denmark
Follows the International Ice Hockey Federation’s requirements for mouth protection, including in mixed zones with media. Players avoid places with a lot of people.
+ The Swedish men’s national basketball team, which faces Germany and Israel in the WC qualifiers this week
Keep a distance of one and a half meters. The players do not shake hands, but greet from a distance. Ideally, you wave to each other. No requirement for mouth protection in connection with meetings with the media.
+ The national track and field team, EC in Munich last week
Keep the group together and minimize contact with other people. Press conferences outdoors, with distance without mouthguards. Meetings indoors with other people wearing face masks.
According to the Public Health Authority, there may be an increase in covid infections in Sweden in September.
New national team doctor Rickard Noberius started the camp in Torsby by showing infection curves to the skaters.
He then explained the rules that should apply to the skaters’ contacts with people outside the national team bubble. It is about extra strict requirements for mouth protection, keeping distance and hand sanitiser.
“Little Sigh”
The rules also applied to the media, who received clear instructions before the press conference.
“It was tough, you thought it would be over,” says William Poromaa.
Emma Ribom:
— It was a bit of a sigh when our doctor showed us curves and we saw this in black and white. It’s going up significantly again.
“This was not something you had expected a number of months ago. That you would sit here with a mouth guard and adhere to the same restrictions as during the pandemic,” says Ebba Andersson.
Ebba Andersson:
— This was not something that had been expected a number of months ago. That you would sit here with a mouth guard and adhere to the same restrictions as during the pandemic.
Calle Halfvarsson says that the risk of the covid infection became more apparent when he arrived at the camp:
“But I’m not worried, even if some people are,” he says
Natural for the doctor
On the Public Health Agency’s website, there is up-to-date covid information that mostly deals with calls for vaccination and general warnings to protect yourself and others against infection.
But for the national team doctor Rickard Noberius, it was natural to recommend tightening the infection protection:
— There is an increase in society and there will be an increase in the next few weeks. If you do a sport like skiing, it is important every day that you can be healthy and injury-free. Therefore, we have extra precautions to minimize the risk of getting sick from covid in this period, when it starts to approach the season, says Rickard Noberius and continues:
— This is a decision I have taken after careful consideration together with the national team management. We have discussed this a lot, even with those who are responsible for infection control in areas to get expert tips from them. In endurance sports, you are always extra sensitive to infections.
At the national team camp in Sollefteå earlier this summer, it wasn’t as hard.
— Of course you thought, we’re going to get into this again now. It feels a bit difficult that it will be another winter, full of covid texts, face masks and hand sanitizer. Nobody wants it like in the Olympics. It was a mental strain, says national team manager Anders Byström.
He states that there is some concern about new infection:
— For the skaters’ sake, it’s not good. We don’t want to end up there (having a corona outbreak in the squad).