COVID testing: New rules take effect for youth sports in LA County

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Another change to Los Angeles County's evolving COVID guidelines took effect Wednesday for participants and coaches in youth sports.

The new rule, announced Monday, includes school-based athletic programs. Under the previously released rules, the county was mandating weekly COVID testing for all players and staff, regardless of vaccination status.

The revised rules, however, remove the weekly testing requirement for fully vaccinated youth taking part in outdoor sports, unless there is a positive case among players, coaches and/or staff. If there is a positive case, all players, coaches, staff and volunteers will be required to have a weekly negative test for two weeks following exposure.

Weekly testing will still be mandated for all youth, staff, coaches and volunteers who are not fully vaccinated and are involved in "moderate" or "high" risk indoor sports. For "moderate" or "high" risk outdoor sports, testing will be required for all youth aged 12 and older, staff, coaches and volunteers who are not vaccinated.

No weekly testing will be required for children under 12 involved in outdoor sports.

Health officials said the rules could be modified further based on availability of testing, and will be reassessed when overall community transmission of the virus diminishes.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks in schools for students, staff and teachers.

Nationwide, COVID-19 deaths are running at more than 1,100 a day, the highest level since mid-March, and new cases per day are averaging over 152,000, turning the clock back to the end of January. As of early this week, the number of people in the hospital with the coronavirus was around 85,000, a level not seen since early February.

The surge is largely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant among people who are unvaccinated. In areas where vaccination rates are particularly low, doctors have pleaded with their communities to get inoculated to spare overburdened hospitals.

They have also sounded the alarm about the growing toll of the variant on children and young adults.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.