Gaborone — Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) acting chief executive officer (CEO) says given the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases, they are working on guidelines for those that want to practice sport, both organised and recreational.

Addressing a virtual press conference on Monday February 8, Tuelo Serufho said the commission was worried about the rising mortality rate.

He said BNSC was not oblivious to the fact that sport, as a microcosm of a broader society, was not spared, and that the people that had passed on were not just statistics.

“They are mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sibling’s sons and daughters, and very valuable lives. We have moved from not knowing people afflicted by COVID to now putting names behind some of those numbers. In some cases with people that we loved dearly.”

Serufho said even before they got afflicted they could not remain indifferent as one life lost was one too many.

He said they started to develop guidelines for sport practitioners a few weeks ago.

The CEO said the guidelines not only emphasised standard COVID-19 measures, but most importantly demanded that there must be extensive testing to safeguard human life.

Over and above testing, he said there was a demand for appropriately qualified people to be appointed.

“We understand that the strict requirements we have placed on those that want to do sports, especially contact sports, will bring about a lot of costs, but there is no price to human life,” he said.

Furthermore, Serufho said as the sport leadership, they would mainly be providing financial support towards tests for national teams preparing for or competing in sanctioned activities

He said except for national teams, costs shall be for the account of the clubs and or individuals, adding that as the sport in general was preparing to come back, they would be no spectators allowed at league matches and or competition venues.

Serufho said face to face meetings within sport had been suspended. He noted that they had already provided the guidelines to the national sport association. “They must be strictly read together with the return to sport matrix; the latter document showing what aspect of each sport is permitted,” said Serufho

He said the return to sport matrix was a live document that would keep changing depending on how good or poor compliance was in each sport.

“In the spirit of fighting the scourge, the commission’s funding for the remaining part of the financial year will be for activities that cannot be avoided provided they have been determined not to have the potential to give rise to the spread of the virus,” he said.