An amateur recreational ice hockey game played at an indoor ice rink in the Tampa Bay, Florida became an example of a super spreader event for COVID-19. The teams each had 11 players between the ages of 15 to 53. 14 players of the 22 players and one rink staff member became infected.
Ice hockey involves vigorous physical exertion accompanied by deep, heavy respiration, and during the game, players frequently move from the ice surface to the bench while still breathing heavily. In this game, hockey-specific face protection varied and included metal cages or plastic half-shields (covering the eyes and the upper part of the nose); some players do not wear face protection. Cloth face masks for disease control were NOT used in the locker rooms or during the game.
The high proportion of infected players on the index patient’s team might have resulted from additional exposures to the index patient in the locker room and on the player bench, where players sit close to one another. Not all players from the game sought testing, and asymptomatic infections were possibly not identified. There was only one spectator to the game and that person showed no symptoms and went untested. It is unknown how many people the players then went on to infect.
A super spreader event is when one person infects more than 5 people. This is happening more often that you might think. The fact that the United States has been so lax on contact tracing, means these types of spreader events often go unchecked. You have to look for something to find it.