The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) and the state Department of Public Health (DPH) are encouraging student-athletes and their families to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Both the CIAC and DPH want student-athletes to have the ability to stay on the field and in the classroom this fall, they said.
Officials said those who are 12 and up have the ability to get vaccinated, which will help ensure they can have a "health, safe and uninterrupted fall sports season."
Coaches are also being urged to get vaccinated if they have not already done so. School athletic directors and club sports organizers are being urged to work with the DPH or their local health department to host and sponsor mobile or other vaccine clinics to get middle and high school students, as well as their family, vaccinated.
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"Vaccination of all eligible athletes, coaches and officials is currently the most important mitigation strategy we have available for preventing COVID-19 outbreaks on youth sports teams, and in the surrounding communities that support them," CIAC officials said in a statement.
"The more athletes, coaches, officials and supporting family members who are vaccinated, the more likely interscholastic and other youth sports teams will be able to avoid repeated quarantines and testing of participants, to keep practicing and playing through the scheduled season, and to get back to a "new normal" for youth sports in our state," the statement continued.
The CIAC reiterated that anyone who is vaccinated does not need to quarantine if they're exposed to COVID-19, as long as they remain asymptomatic.
Those who are 12 and up are eligible to get the Pfizer vaccine.
