DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday that high contact sports in high schools would be suspended due to the recent surge in coronavirus infections and there would be stimulus checks of $1,200 for eligible unemployed individuals hit by the pandemic.
The sports prohibition has been introduced as part of a modification to the District’s Phase Two requirements, affecting basketball, boxing, football, hockey, lacrosse, martial arts, rugby, soccer and wrestling. It is scheduled to take effect on Friday, December 11, 2020.
While high school extra-curricular youth sports activities and competitions are suspended around the District, universities and professional leagues are allowed to organize and administer practices and competitions for their athletes who engage in high-contact sports.
Recreation centers and sports clubs are among the facilities that are required to suspend sports and organized athletic recreation activities (such as yoga and Zumba).
As for the one-time stimulus payment announced on Monday by Bowser and the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES), around 20,000 residents who applied and were deemed eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) as of November 30, 2020 will directly receive $1,200.
DOES will start issuing the checks in the coming weeks, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
“The District is committed to using every resource at our disposal to provide support to residents who have been hardest hit by the pandemic,” said Mayor Bowser about the program.
“With federal assistance getting ready to end later this month, and as the public health and economic crises continue, this stimulus payment is one way we can get immediate and much-needed relief to more than 20,000 Washingtonians. But we also know that short-term relief is not enough. We urge our federal partners to pass legislation that recognizes the needs of millions of Americans who have made tremendous sacrifices and who are struggling to get by through no fault of their own,” she continued.