It has been a long time!

Jeffrey Feld, Federation President/ CEO

After more than a year, Federation is going to sanction outdoor activities. This will include outdoor activities by MCA, WCA and all other Federation programs.

The Federation Reopening Committee continues to monitor the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the committee is not yet ready to allow for indoor, in-person meetings and programs.

We will continue to evaluate the situation. As you may remember, Federation is following CDC guidelines. Initially, the committee also suggested that the positivity rate needed to be below 5% for two consecutive weeks. With the advent of the COVID-19 vaccination, so many things have changed. The fact that so many individuals have received the COVID-19 vaccination allows us to move forward.

The committee has established the following criteria for participating in outdoor activities:

A) All participants are to be vaccinated and wait two weeks after the required number of injections (mandatory). They also should be able to document such vaccination upon request.

B) Group size may not exceed 25 people based on recommendations from Collier County.

C) Social distancing is still suggested.

D) Masking is optional.

E) Hand sanitizer is suggested.

F) It is mandatory that if one is ill, they do not attend programs.

G) It is mandatory that if one is diagnosed with COVID-19, they do not attend programs.

H) Do not attend programs if you are waiting for results from or have a positive COVID-19 test.

I) Do not attend programs if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the past 14 days.

Of course, we will continue to evaluate the results of this action. It is our hope that there is not a “spike” in the coronavirus that will require some other action as it is our wish to continue moving in the direction of being able to do more in-person activities.

Particular thanks go to our Federation Reopening Committee that has been meeting, and will continue to meet, on a monthly basis. The committee members include Dr. Jerry Shier, Dr. Art Seigel, Dr. Brian Wolf, Dr. Karen Ezrine, Dr. Bernie Lublin, Dr. Nat Ritter, Joshua Bialek, Stanley Deutsch, William Petasnick, Jane Schiff and Jeffrey Feld.