COVID-19 Guidlines – Beverly Hills, CA Little League Official Website

COVID-19 Mitigation Plan

Last updated 02/25/22

In compliance with recent state and county guidelines for youth sports during the Covid19 pandemic, the Board of Beverly Hills Little League (BHLL) has adopted the following updated program and safety protocols for the 2022 Baseball Season. Safety will always be BHLL’s priority. BHLL will update these guidelines as necessary.

Eligible Players & Coaches

A coach in good standing with BHLL (including PCA certified in the past year) is eligible to volunteer.
Coaches will be required to be familiar with and enforce the League’s safety protocols (see below).
All participants including coaches will have to a sign waiver of liabilities to participate in the Fall Program.
By participating in the league, all parents, guardians, adult coaches, and umpires agree to allow sharing of required SARS-CoV-2 testing results and vaccination status with whoever needs to know this information to satisfy testing and BHLL vaccination requirements, to establish player eligibility, and to fulfill Los Angeles County mandated procedures for reporting of positive test results.

Equipment & Snacks

Participants should bring their own equipment.
BHLL will supply necessary equipment to any participant lacking proper equipment due to financial challenges.
No helmets, catcher’s masks, drink bottles, or food will be shared at any time (participants should bring their own drinks and snacks).
Depending on the division, the league will provide one to two set of catching equipment for each team and each catcher’s mask should only be used by one player each day. The equipment shall be sanitized after each game.

Masks

Masks are recommended but not required when in the dugouts or in close contact with other team members or staff.
When actively practicing, conditioning, competing masking is recommended, but not required.
When outdoors, masks are recommended but not required in crowded spaces among spectators.
Kids are encouraged to bring more than one mask to practice or games in case their mask gets wet or soiled during play.
Any player having trouble breathing while wearing mask must take a break.

Travel for Unvaccinated Individuals

Get tested 3-5 days after travel and self-quarantine for 7 days, or self quarantine for 10 days.
Travel is defined as travel by means other than your own vehicle or out of state travel in your own vehicle.

Rules if a Close Contact is Infected with SARS-COV-2

To be a “close contact” you have been within 6 feet for more than 15 cumulative minutes (in 24 hours) of someone who has been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2.
Up to date vaccination status refers to having received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine when eligible or having completed a primary COVID-19 vaccine series if not yet eligible for booster (for individuals 12 and older, boosters are indicated when more than six months out from the second mRNA dose or more than 2 months after the J&J vaccine).

If you are:

Asymptomatic & up to date with vaccination: don’t need to quarantine, but follow strict mask use during all team activities for 10 days
Not up to date with vaccination: quarantine for 5 days followed by strict mask use during all activities for an additional 5 days.
To be eligible to continue with team activities, ALL close contacts are required to have a negative test on day 5 after the exposure.
After diagnosis of infection in a team member, the team will be required to follow these rules for Close Contact Diagnosed with Covid-19.

Procedure for Positive Tests or Individuals Symptomatic for COVID-19

Participants parents or legal guardians will notify the coach and the league safety officer at bhllcovidsafety@gmail.com when a positive test occurs in a player or close contact of the player.
Duration of isolation and precautions after a positive test
For most people with COVID-19 illness, isolation can be discontinued 5 days after symptoms present and after resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms. These individuals are required to always wear a mask during all team activities for 5 additional days.
For people who are asymptomatic but diagnosed with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, isolation is required for 5 days followed by wearing a mask during all team activities for 5 additional days.
Immunocompromised individuals may require extending duration of isolation and precautions for up to 20 days after symptom onset.

Screening for Infection

Home-Based Symptom Screening should include monitoring for the following:
Temperature 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher
Sore throat
Cough (for students with chronic cough due to allergies or asthma, a change in their cough from usual)
Difficulty breathing (for students with asthma, check for a change from their baseline breathing)
Diarrhea or vomiting
New onset of severe headache, especially with a fever

If a child has ANY of these symptoms, they should:

Get tested for SARS-CoV-2.
Notify the child’s pediatrician, coach, and the league safety officer. The safety officer may ask some additional questions to help determine when it is safe for the child to return to the team and about other people who may have been exposed.
Stay home until the results of the test are known.
If negative, they will need to submit proof of the test before returning to team activities.
If positive, the athlete must complete the required isolation (outlined above) before returning to team activities.

Vaccination

It is strongly recommended that all participants ages 5 and older are fully up to date with vaccination because this is the primary mechanism to protect all members of the community.
Up to date means a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster dose(s) when eligible.
All athletes, coaches, and volunteers ages 12 and older are required to be fully vaccinated (fully vaccinated means that a person has finished the initial vaccine series, whether that’s one dose of the J&J vaccine or two doses of the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines).
To satisfy this requirement, all athletes, coaches, and volunteers ages 12 or older are required to submit proof of being fully vaccinated to Bhllcovidsafety@gmail.com by February 1st, 2021.
Grace Period and Deadline for Vaccine Eligible Individuals Kids that turn 12 during the season will be required to receive their first dose of the vaccine within two weeks of their 12th birthday and must complete their vaccination schedule within five weeks of their 12th birthday.
Medical exemption requests will be reviewed by our physician volunteers on a case-by-case basis.

Umpires:

It is strongly recommended that all umpires are fully up to date with vaccination.
Umpires who are not up to date with vaccination are required to submit a negative test for SARS-CoV-2 from within 24 hours of a game and wear a KN95 or equivalent mask when participating in league activities.

Weekly Testing for SARS-COV-2

Routine testing is not required for people who show proof that they are up to date with vaccination against COVID-19 or that they have recovered from/completed isolation for laboratory confirmed COVID-19 within the past 90 days. However, testing will be necessary should such an individual display symptom of Covid-19.
Per Department of Public Health guideline, if there is a positive case, all players, staff/coaches/volunteers (regardless of vaccination status) are required to have a weekly negative test result for two weeks from exposure and must test negative prior to competitions.
To be exempt from testing, proof of being up to date with vaccination or a positive Covid-19 test within the past 90 days must be submitted to the safety officer at bhllcovidsafety@gmail.com by February 1st, 2021.
All coaches, athletes, and volunteers who are not up to date with vaccination must complete weekly PCR or Antigen testing.
Any PCR or antigen test satisfies this requirement.
Weekly results will need to be forwarded to coaches before participating in weekly activities.
Coaches should maintain records of all athletes’ and staffs’/coaches’/volunteers’ vaccination status and weekly COVID-19 testing compliance and any testing done after having exposure to a COVID-19 case. They do not need to keep a copy of the proof of full vaccination shown nor copies of test results. However, records will be audited randomly during the season and any coach whose records are not in compliance with league policy will face disciplinary action.

Additional Protocols

Non-athletic team events, such as team dinners or other social activities, should only happen if they can be held outdoors with distancing.
Parents will not be allowed on the field.
No physical contact, high fives, handshakes, fist bumps, hugs or horse play will be permitted other than the expected contact necessary for play during games and practices.
There will be a minimum 7-day suspension of all team activities for any youth sports team in which there has been an outbreak of four or more epidemiologically linked cases over a 14-day period.