Will Seven Rivers be Post Poned or Canceled

[Override]

It might be a little early for this, but I wanted to hear other people’s opinions on it. It has now been confirmed that Wisconsin has six cases of the coronavirus. This may not be a lot compared to Washington or New York, but I heard a lot of the Michigan regionals were canceled by because they had two cases.

My team will be attending Seven Rivers in week 6, and we are beginning to question if the regional will happen. Does anyone know if any of the other Wisconsin regionals have been canceled yet? Or if regionals have been canceled if there is as low as six cases?

[VRoom]

It is entirely likely that, given the recent cancellations from HQ, most or all remaining events will be postponed or cancelled within the week. States are beginning to place limits on the sizes of public events, many of which are well below the size of regional and district events.

This is all purely hypothetical, it would be best to wait for word from official sources.

[Bryan_Herbst]

Any response at this point is guesswork and conjecture. Your best bet is to await information from the local planning committee/regional director.

[EricLeifermann]

Arizona postponed their event with only 3 cases in the state.

That being said i reached out earlier this week(Monday) to ask this very question to the RD and was told 50/50 at that point.

The other event in Wisconsin during week 4 is currently still planned to happen. Though with how fast everything is moving all that could change in the next 5 min.

My suggestion is to plan for it to happen, while also having a back up plan for if/when these events get postponed/cancelled.

[EricLeifermann]

Email just sent out to 7 rivers teams.

Hello FIRST Wisconsin Community & Teams registered for the Seven Rivers Regional,

​Regarding the Coronovirus (COVID-19) situation, the FIRST WI team would like to share the following update as it relates our regional events (Wisconsin Regional and Seven Rivers Regional).

​The safety of the students, mentors, families, and volunteers is our top concern as an organization. At this time, there is no change to any of the regional event plans. However, FIRST WI is closely monitoring this dynamic situation through communication with FIRST HQ and assessing recommendations from local, state, and national health officials, and no final decision has been made.

Updates from FIRST WI Robotics (Following FIRST HQ and local, state and national health official directions), will be posted here with the most recent updates first:

http://www.wisconsinfrc.com/covid-19

We understand that the decision to attend any event is a local decision, and should be made in cooperation with school administration, the local health department, and parents The most important way to protect yourself against the spread of any contagious disease is to understand the symptoms, risks, and steps that can be taken to stay healthy while you are at events.

Safety Precautions:

Stay home if feeling unwell, developing a cough, or running a fever

Practice hand hygiene, including frequent hand washing, use of hand sanitizer, and avoiding touching eyes, nose, and mouth

Practice respiratory etiquette, including covering cough and sneezes with a tissue, and then disposing of the tissue in the trash

Clean frequently touched surface and objects daily (including tablets and cell phones)

Perform self-monitoring, and seek medical care immediately if feeling unwell

I get that everyone wants to keep everybody safe, but the lack of not planning to limit the access to these events to registered team members (like many other events before they got canceled) is short sighted. That is obviously going to be the 1st step here, why not just announce it now? Let teams start planning now 3-4 weeks out. I don’t want this to turn into a 2-3 days before the event we get notice we have to decide who to bring and who not to, i also don’t want to load in and be in the middle of a drivers meeting have be told to pack our stuff and go home.

Its time to just bite the bullet put our big people pants on and end everyone’s stress by a wide sweeping cancellation/“postponement” of all events FIRST wide.