Masks in the outdoors

[InquisitiveScouter]

13 hours ago, mashmaster said:

It is such a fine line.  We do lots of sailing with masks and when they are on a single person dinghy, they remove the masks.  At meetings we are outdoors with masks.  Only complaints we get are from Adults trying to make a political point. I shut those down.

One of our local schools recently forced all students to come into school to take a standardized test.  The cheerleading team apparently all had covid and spread it to 26 kids.  ugh

We do not do masks in any aquatic activity.  You go in the water with one on, and your breathing is immediately impaired.  Not a good idea, IMHO.

[mashmaster]

23 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

We do not do masks in any aquatic activity.  You go in the water with one on, and your breathing is immediately impaired.  Not a good idea, IMHO.

We only wear them on land or on a boat where you can't social distance.  On a the boats that you can't social distance there is a keel, so you aren't going in the water.  You are wearing a PFD at all times, so you pop out of the water pretty quick in the very small chance you enter the water.  When you are sailing a Sunfish or Laser, you are alone and social distanced: you don't wear a mask.

 

[Owls_are_cool]

Summer camp in Montana last summer, masks were only needed in food lines. Our temperature was taken twice a day. My troop had to do everything together and did not interact with scouts from other troops. No outbreaks at camp and nobody in my troop came down with covid.

We do not require masks in outdoor activities. Parents have been good keeping their scouts out of activities if they have been exposed to covid. My son played basketball without masks...a game with a lot of contact...no outbreaks. One player could not play for 10 days, because parents got it. The numbers in Montana show that the virus is running its course and activities are getting back to normal. 

Then again Montanans have practiced social distancing for over 100 years. We do not like people in our personal space. 

[MikeS72]

4 hours ago, Owls_are_cool said:

Then again Montanans have practiced social distancing for over 100 years. We do not like people in our personal space.

Far too many of us packed in like sardines here in FL to be able to have much personal space 😜.

On a more serious note, we are doing our 6th outing since Covid began this weekend.  We have had to make adjustments, such as eliminating carpooling for the time being, and wearing masks at outdoor meetings, but the scouts have adapted and we are making it work.

Edited April 23, 2021 by MikeS72

[Eagle1993]

CDC may be revising their guidelines for masks outdoors.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/it-still-necessary-wear-masks-outdoors-cdc-looking-revising-mask-n1264937

[Jameson76]

For reference our troop has +/- 60 registered Scouts and +/- 20 leaders

We restarted out troop activities in July of 2020 holding our own weeklong summer camp.  35 Scouts and Leaders, we did not require masks, but you could wear one if wanted.  We were 100% outside, 1 Scout / Leader per tent, no carpooling.  

The troop started meeting in person in August, again 100% outside, at a park pavilion near the CO, masks not required.  Also we started outings in August and have since then had 8 outdoor events; aquatics, kayaking, backpacking, AOL / Webelos visit, Winter trip to coast, more backpacking, wide game, and a ropes course.  The unit averaged about 30 Scouts per event.  Again, all 100% outside and we have done carpooling but limited the number in cars, (no middle seats).  Again no masks required.  One scout per tent and no hammock stacking.

Our weekly meetings are 100% outside (we are in the south) and fortunately our troop even before the pandemic utilized a large outdoor meeting area behind the CO, so that part was easy.  If it rains we may call the meeting and do virtual.

While this is anecdotal, looking back over the last 10 months, to our knowledge, we have not had any transmissions or COVID issues.  Parents do sign a COVID release.  The troop is 100% outside.  

Each unit needs to do what is right for them and their Scouts and families.  We have been very clear to the families what we are doing and what our plans have been.  The potential transmission while outside is very low.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Jameson76

[Eagle1993]

2 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

For reference our troop has +/- 60 registered Scouts and +/- 20 leaders

We restarted out troop activities in July of 2020 holding our own weeklong summer camp.  35 Scouts and Leaders, we did not require masks, but you could wear one if wanted.  We were 100% outside, 1 Scout / Leader per tent, no carpooling.  

The troop started meeting in person in August, again 100% outside, at a park pavilion near the CO, masks not required.  Also we started outings in August and have since then had 8 outdoor events; aquatics, kayaking, backpacking, AOL / Webelos visit, Winter trip to coast, more backpacking, wide game, and a ropes course.  The unit averaged about 30 Scouts per event.  Again, all 100% outside and we have done carpooling but limited the number in cars, (no middle seats).  Again no masks required.  One scout per tent and no hammock stacking.

Our weekly meetings are 100% outside (we are in the south) and fortunately our troop even before the pandemic utilized a large outdoor meeting area behind the CO, so that part was easy.  If it rains we may call the meeting and do virtual.

While this is anecdotal, looking back over the last 10 months, to our knowledge, we have not had any transmissions or COVID issues.  Parents do sign a COVID release.  The troop is 100% outside.  

Each unit needs to do what is right for them and their Scouts and families.  We have been very clear to the families what we are doing and what our plans have been.  The potential transmission while outside is very low.

I definitely agree that being outside is relatively safe and a good reason to keep meetings/events outdoors as much as possible.  We were following a similar plan, but ended up with 1 scout with Covid on one of our backpacking trips.  Then a few months later another scout (my son) ended up having Covid while at a Troop meeting (outdoors).  Those two events did not lead to any transmission (as I expect being outside helped), but it pushed us to virtual only for about 3 months (that plus winter).  

I'll add that we did require masks (though on the backpacking trip they were not always up) and social distancing even when outdoors.  I was open with parents that if they have any concern, they should not send their kids to our events.  That made my job a bit easier when I had to call parents informing them of the infections.  I would say at minimum always follow your CO, Council, County and State Guidelines.  I would hate to be in the position of calling parents if we had a Covid case and were violating those rules/guidelines.