Coronavirus dilemma 1

[SeanC]

To reduce the risk of coronavirus being spread at control sites, should we ban non-contactless punching at all (SI) events?

Discuss

[Gross]

But will an SI card be allowed to cross the border from England into Wales or Scotland or will you need to leave it at home

[frostbite]

Am I right in thinking that for SIAC there has to be a physical, in-the-hole punch at check and at the finish/download to activate and de-activate the card?

[MJG]

Has to be a physical punch at clear and check. Start and finish can be contactless but for safety check latter is often either a physical punch or followed by a control with a physical punch.

[PhilJ]

That would certainly reduce the queues, how many BO members have SIACs? Would reduce entry numbers nicely so no queues at controls or anywhere else.

Would also mean clubs have to make their controls SIAC'ble. I know my club's kit isn't and they haven't bothered with the faff of upgrading/resetting or whatever you have to do to make them SIAC'ble.

[King Penguin]

or increase queues and contact before the start to obtain a hire card

[Patrick]

Perhaps it might be simpler just to request/require runners to wear gloves. Especially given that there are other surfaces people can touch (eg opening gates) where a contact-free option doesn't exist.

Patrick

[SeanC]

or increase queues and contact before the start to obtain a hire card

To clarify the discussion point with the missing information from my supposition - please assume no hiring (and probably no entry) on the day.

I read that golf is now allowed, in a restricted form*. Their risk mitigation includes no touching the flags.

Also changing in the car park - something that puzzles some non-orienteers - is now the thing in golf. So orienteering leads on that one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/52624169

*England only

[pete.owens]

Perhaps it might be simpler just to request/require runners to wear gloves.

It wouldn't help - you can transfer a virus particle from a surface to your face with a glove just as easily as a hand.

The other suggestion that wouldn't help is washing controls before and after events. The virus only survives a few days on a surface so the only potential infections are between competitors and the control hangars and pickers during the event.

The only effective measure is for competitors and officials to wash their hands before and after visiting the course or handling the kit or the maps.

Also we need to keep this in proportion. The main risk of infection is direct face to face or hand to hand transmission. While the virus can survive on hard surfaces we don't actually handle them when we punch (in the way we do a door handle or kettle). The main risk of visiting controls is meeting another competitor lingering over their next route decision. A rule requiring people to immediately move on after punching would be much more useful than worrying about touching the box.

[SeanC]

I would expect a measure like this to be just one of many. We could always use the argument for any one of them, or even for going orienteering at all, as not being significant. However it's also a reasonable to say that whatever mitigation steps we take, there will inevitably be some spread of Coronavirus via an event, and therefore on to those that haven't gone to the event who will catch the virus without even the reward of going to event.

Is this dilemma something we should worry about? It's got to be something we should be thinking hard about. I think we're being asked to accept that the virus will be around for a while and we should get on with a new version of our lives which might include less risky sport. And for many Nopesport readers - what is life without orienteering?

Few of us are experts on this stuff. However I would have thought that an extra risk of physical punching is that competitors will be breathing hard directly at the control unit when they punch, leaving droplets on the unit to pick up by other competitors.

Against the difficult to assess risk, the mitigation (contactless punching) only improves the experience for the competitor so it seems a no brainer (from the competitors viewpoint) to use contactless punching.

I do agree asking competitors to keep moving at control sites would be a good risk mitigation. Surely contactless punching helps that? Physical punching forces a complete stop and for the punter standard runner like me it can be hard to get going again

[Snail]

Perhaps it might be simpler just to request/require runners to wear gloves.

It wouldn't help - you can transfer a virus particle from a surface to your face with a glove just as easily as a hand.

It would. The primary aim would be to reduce the chances of an asymptomatic person leaving virus traces on the control unit in the first place, rather than tto stop others picking it up. But the gloves might have to be nitrile or simlar, rather than cotton/fabric, so perhaps uncomfortable to run in.

[Patrick]

Against the difficult to assess risk, the mitigation (contactless punching) only improves the experience for the competitor so it seems a no brainer (from the competitors viewpoint) to use contactless punching.

Given you say above that hiring cards won't be an option, you may have slightly mitigated a risk for some by effectively banning anyone without a SIAC card - that is, a lot of current orienteers and all non-orienteers. Not sure why this is a no-brainer, at least in the way you are implying!

Patrick

[SeanC]

It's certainly a no brainer IMHO for anyone with a contactless card to use it, and for clubs to turn on contactless punching if they can.

I'm talking about the near future where coronavirus is still common and there is no vaccine. I wouldn't expect clubs to be pushing the events to non-members, events are likely to be BO members only?

In this situation I don't see it's that hard if we work to a target such as "by [insert date here] all events (where clubs have supporting technology) will be contactless punching only". So we'll all need to buy a contactless card by then if we haven't got one*.

* I am not on commission from SportIdent BTW

[maprun]

It quite easy to avoid touching the control unit with both contact SI and EMIT, but there again when you're tired...

[Patrick]

Sorry Sean, I still don't agree. As a practical step in mitigating risk it will achieve almost nothing. I certainly don't habitually touch the box when SI punching. I do touch trees, fences, gates, etc when orienteering, often at points where other people will have done the same. Overall, gloves would be a much simpler and more effective means of reducing transfer between orienteers, let alone to/from other people using the terrain.

Orienteering is going to need all the participants it can get to survive this, especially given that car sharing being effectively impossible will bar some people from all but local events. Are you really going to tell a family of four casual orienteers they need to spend £250 before showing up? So much for being a sport for all...

Genuine question to anyone seriously proposing this: what proportion of current BOF members own a SIAC?

Patrick