Summer In Bucks Co.: Yes To Camps And Pools, No To Kids' Sports

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Summer camps and swimming pools in Bucks County probably will be allowed to operate this year, county officials say, while youth sports are probably canceled until fall.

But summertime activities, if they are allowed, will have a different look, with face masks and social-distancing expected to be the order of the day.

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On Thursday, Bucks County health and political leaders addressed plans for summer in the time of coronavirus. As they spoke, they were hoping that Gov. Tom Wolf would soon move the county from his virus reopening plan's most-restrictive red phase to the more lenient yellow phase.

Assuming that shift happens by summer, Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Department of Health, said he plans to issue guidance to camps and pools on ways they can safely operate over the summer.

"We think there are things they can do to open safely," Damsker said.

Included in that guidance are rules that include spacing tables at pools at least six feet apart.

"By nature of that, it will reduce the capacity of those pools," Damsker said. "The chairs and tables have to be separated."

At summer camps, guidance will include avoiding gatherings where all the children are in a building at the same time and other social-distancing guidelines.

In Bucks County and elsewhere, individual summer camps have been making their own decisions whether to go forward or cancel in 2020.

RELATED: Coronavirus Puts PA Summer Camps In Limbo

The Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, Bucks County Community College, Penn State and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are among those who already have canceled summer camps this year.

Allowing summer camps to go forward, Damsker said, would help families as other businesses in Bucks County reopened.

"There's no way for society to all open fully, for certain businesses to open, if they don't have a place to put their kids," he said. "We believe we can do it safely and it's also good for our county and our families."

On Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf issued statewide guidance for summer camps that, among other things, said that overnight camps will not be allowed in counties zoned yellow.

When possible, children should be with the same group every day, with the same staff members, all staff should wear face masks and public playgrounds may be used, the rules say.

"We understand the need to secure child care options as parents and caregivers return to work across the state," Wolf said. "And for providers of these programs to understand how they may operate. We hope that this guidance helps everyone in need of viable options for their children’s care and recreation this summer and eliminates some of the stress and worry associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is affecting our everyday lives."

Children's organized sports leagues in Bucks County, however, likely are a casualty of the coronavirus shutdown, which was designed to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

"Those kind of things are probably going to be waiting until we get to the green," Damsker said. "Clearly, that's not going to happen for a couple of more months at the earliest."

Since the outbreak began, Bucks County has had 4,536 residents confirmed to be infected with COVID-19, 411 of whom have died and 1,366 of whom are confirmed to have recovered.

Wolf's guidance said children's organized sports may not be held in yellow counties.

Statistics, charts and other coronavirus-related information for Bucks County can be found on the county's coronavirus data portal.

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