COVID 19 UPDATE

Dear Dragons Families,

As of 4:45pm today, both PELA (girls league) and LAYLL (boys league) have confirmed the suspension of games until the first week of April. This was the result of school and municipal closures affecting the use of field space throughout Los Angeles. It is our understanding that leagues will make best efforts to reschedule the missed games once activities resume.

As we announced yesterday, the City of Santa Monica suspended all field permits through March 31, which means we will not be holding any Dragons practices. 

This means there will be no practices nor games through the end of March. We understand that in times like this, good communication is of the utmost importance and we will do our best to get out any relevant updates as quickly as possible. We will also be posting information on the home page of our website (santamonicadragons.org), starting tomorrow.

In the meantime, please be safe and practice good hygiene. Click HERE for a link to the CDC’s web page on proper hygiene. 

DRAGONS VIRTUAL TRAINING PROGRAM

With schools and activities closing down we feel that is it our responsibility to make sure our players continue to stay active.

Our teams have made so much progress from the start of the season until now, and we would like to keep that going. While we are not able to meet for practices nor games, we would still like the players to keep up with their skills and conditioning on their own until we are back out on the field with one another.

Similar to how the students will be taking classes online, we will also be offering a simple individualized lacrosse training program that each player should follow over the course of the next few weeks.

As we can not closely monitor player development, we ask the players that you hold each other accountable (via text, social media or the TeamSnap app) and parents we ask that you play a role in championing your child to practice outside of his/her school work.

We ask that you give us some time to curate the virtual training program content this weekend and we will have it ready to share it with you all early next week.

Let’s make a goal to return back to the field stronger players than we are today!

We understand that these are very trying and uncertain times and we encourage families to reach out with questions or if you need assistance of any sort. We have a very caring and supportive Dragons community with many people willing to help if necessary. We hope you all stay safe during this time and please do not hesitate to reach out if you need anything.

Sincerely,

Randy Grube – Founder

Erik Krum – Boys Athletic Director

Meghan Toomey – Girls Program Director

Below is additional information we have culled from the CDC website so anyone that hasn’t already done so can get an overview of the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Definition: Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this new virus (named SARS-CoV-2). The current virus has been named “SARS-CoV-2” and the disease it causes has been named “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated “COVID-19”).

Source: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a betacoronavirus, like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. All three of these viruses have their origins in bats. The sequences from U.S. patients are similar to the one that China initially posted, suggesting a likely single, recent emergence of this virus from an animal reservoir. Early on, many of the patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. Later, a growing number of patients reportedly did not have exposure to animal markets, indicating person-to-person spread. Presently, we are dealing with community spread, which means some people have been infected and it is not known how or where they became exposed.

Symptoms & Severity: The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known. Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. The following symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure:

• Fever
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

At Risk Population: Early information out of China shows that some people are at higher risk of getting very sick from this illness. This includes:

• Older adults
• People who have serious chronic medical conditions like:
  • Heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Lung disease

How It Spreads: COVID-19 is a respiratory disease. The underlying virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.

• Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Can someone spread the virus without being sick?

• People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).
• Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

Can the virus spread from contact with contaminated surfaces or objects? It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

CDC Live Map on the spread of there infection: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html#reporting-cases

Some Data Out Of China: Chinese scientists have compiled a massive data set (The country still accounts for more than 90% of the global total of the 90,000 confirmed cases.) They learned that about 80% of infected people had mild to moderate disease, 13.8% had severe symptoms, and 6.1% had life-threatening episodes of respiratory failure, septic shock, or organ failure. The case fatality rate was highest for people over age 80 (21.9%), and people who had heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension. Fever and dry cough were the most common symptoms. Surprisingly, only 4.8% of infected people had runny noses. Children made up a mere 2.4% of the cases, and almost none was severely ill. For the mild and moderate cases, it took 2 weeks on average to recover.