The National Horseracing Authority confirms that it is aware of an outbreak of Covid-19 cases in persons, including a number of Riders, that work in the industry at Fairview Racecourse in the Eastern Cape.
Due to the significant number of confirmed cases as well as the range of licensees that are affected, urgent intervention is necessary to curtail the spread of the virus into other Horseracing centres , which could have devastating consequences on a national basis.
With immediate effect, there shall be NO travel for Riders into the province of Eastern Cape until further notice.
For travel into other centres, the previous condition of Jockeys producing a Negative SARS-coV-2 (COVID-19) PCR test which is dated within 2 days of the person arriving in that district, will now be re-instated for the meetings commencing Wednesday, 25 August 2021 onwards.
This directive also applies to all NHA Officials that are travelling to other districts.
The Fairview race meeting on 27 August 2021 will be restricted to local riders that are currently based in Gqeberha.
The daily cases of this very sensitive Delta variant are still on the high side. The National Horseracing Authority urges all stakeholders to continue to practice the non-pharmaceutical measures of social distancing, frequent washing of hands and the mandatory wearing of clean masks be strictly adhered to.
This urgent intervention is necessary to ensure the continuation of racing nationally and thereby ensuring the sustainability that is much desired in the current economic climate.
- Media release by NHA on Monday 23 August 2021
