B.C.’s top doctor is playing the role of shutdown defender in telling parents this is not the year to have their kids signed up for multiple sports or to encourage team spirit from the sidelines.

Its because she says some sports leagues are adding to community transmission of COVID-19 in parts of the province.

“Recently over the last weeks, we’ve seen an increase in community exposures connected to recreational sports like hockey and soccer, as they’ve started slowly to restart,” Henry said on Tuesday. “The result has been that some sports facilities have needed to close or to shut down for periods of time.”

She also went on to say that even groups of parents watching their kids play from the sidelines is worrisome.

“We have to remember that spending time socializing or cheering with other parents and fans before, during and after games increases the risk of transmission and exposure for you and your family,” Henry added.

“As much as we want to see the winning goal or celebrate the perfect pass after the game, we need to ensure we are keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe by always following our COVID-19 safety basics.”

Henry says she isn’t asking people to not take part in sports – she’s said many times over the course of the pandemic that is it important for people to be physically active, while keeping yourself safe.

“If you are playing in a sports league, pick one league. Don’t pick multiple leagues. If your children are involved in activities after school, pare it down so that they are not exposed to large numbers of different groups of people,” she added.

“If you’re playing school sports, pick one sport, not two or three other events or different activities outside of school. This is the year to not fill up every night with a different group.”

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, B.C. reported 549 cases of COVID-19 – including 23 cases in Interior Health – for a provincial total of 10,734 cases. She noted that a part of the reason for the higher case count is a backlog in testing, with about six thousand more tests from last week that were completed over the weekend.