It's been challenging to keep up with the ups and downs of this pandemic. We were told the virus would most likely pick up in the fall and now here we are.
Anne Arundel County stated last week, fall sports practice will happen, now in-person practice is canceled.
"Yeah, it's just a big roller coaster ride," said Bob Mosier with the Anne Arundel County Board of Education.
Roller coasters can make you sick, but Mosier knows the COVID virus can make you sick as well. The county school system follows recommendations put forth by the county health office.
The school follows the number of new incidences in the county, the average number of new cases per 100,000 over a week's time. The metric for in school learning is below a 15% rate, the county has a rate of more than 21% now.
"The numbers are such that we can't do it. 21.3 is an awful daunting number, 21.9 is an even more daunting number."
Now, school sports practice will revert back to virtual only. So what can we do to make the new infection rate numbers better?
"We want people to wear masks and wash their hands and keep their distance and all those things the health folks have said since March. That's the way we're gonna get the numbers down and that's the avenue to get students back into schools and back onto fields as quickly as possible."
Last week students could practice outside, this week they can't. That left many parents frustrated, but there are others that share that frustration.
"We totally get the frustration because we are frustrated too. The County Department of Health developed a set of metrics to use for our instructional piece, those are the metrics that they follow," he said.
And those metrics have reached a number that the county says prohibits in-person practices for students.
"Nothing replaces the on the field stuff, right? And that's where we want our student athletes, on the field, on the court, in the gym, but the numbers are just such that we can't make that happen right now."
