CDC issues guidance to not hold events of 50+ people for next 8 weeks

Sports in the United States is set for (at least) a two-month hiatus after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued their latest guidance on Sunday night, recommending that “for the next 8 weeks, organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more”.

Since the response to the COVID-19 outbreak on both sides of the Atlantic has been very similar, with a couple states on the West Coast, including California and Washington, and the Midwest, including Ohio and Illinois, already instituting a (semi-)lockdown this weekend (New York City to follow soon), similar to what Italy and Spain have done in recent weeks as well, we can probably expect sports in Europe to follow similar recommendations as well.

(Basically, everything’s closed or is take-away only, including places like Starbucks, so stay the [FUN] home.)

Banning all medium and large-scale events would not necessarily rule out playing sports behind closer doors, but the extended CDC timeline does match the Italian FA’s hope/expectations to be able to resume playing in May.

The Premier League’s official stance at this time is still to hope to resume playing on April 4, but that’s increasingly looking like a very optimistic scenario.