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CDC recommends nearly all schools cancel football, band

FILE - A student athlete runs a drill during a strength and conditioning camp at Arlington Martin High School Thursday, June 18, 2020, in Arlington, Texas. Texas will play high school football this fall, but some of it will be delayed, fans will be limited and masks will be required as the state fights a surge in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and fatalities. The University Interscholastic League on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 released its guidelines for Texas public high school fall sports, pushing back the start of the football and volleyball seasons for the largest schools by one month into late September and extending the football championships for those schools into January. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file)

TAMPA (WFLA) -The CDC recently released guidance advising schools to cancel high-risk sports and extra-curricular activities or hold them virtually due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. This includes football, wrestling and band.

As part of its guidance last updated on January 13, the CDC advised schools to “cancel or hold high-risk sports and extra-curricular activities virtually” any time a community has a “high” Covid-19 transmission rate.

The CDC gives football and wrestling as examples of high-risk sports and says that “high-risk extracurricular activities are those in which increased exhalation occurs, such as activities that involve singing, shouting, band, or exercise, especially when conducted indoors.”

The guidance links to a CDC map that indicates more than 99% of US counties are currently experiencing high transmission.