Communicating the risk of COVID-19 during sporting events in Qatar: Challenges and opportunities

Background: After a long, unprecedented pause, sporting events were cautiously resumed in Qatar in September 2020. With the persisting COVID-19 uncertainties, characterizing the COVID-19 risks related to sports activities remains to be examined, making it difficult to give clear messages 1. This report describes some of the key challenges and opportunities for communicating COVID-19 risks associated with sporting events. Methods: The outbreak investigation report for COVID-19 cases related to the Asian Federation Cup (AFC) Champions League-West hosted in Qatar Sep 14th to Oct 3rd, 2020 was interpreted and taken as a case study. Results: The outbreak investigation reports, which involved approximately 74 COVID-19 cases is shown in Figure 1 and constituted the main subject to communicate the risks of the infection. The investigation teams were engaged in person-to-person communication, reviewing the history of the possible risk exposure and explaining the recommended measures. Clubs’ physicians and delegations besides the local organizing committee seem to have played a pivotal role as a credible source of information to the players and media about the possible case scenarios and the control measures2,3. The yet unclear mode of transmission may have contributed to the poor risk perception and the compliance with the unfamiliar preventive recommendations2,3. Conclusion: The profound evolution of the pandemic has already offered a unique opportunity to overcome the ‘lack of attention’ in the communication of communicable diseases. Using the epidemiological findings to communicate COVID-19 risks during sporting events seemed to be beneficial to explain the virus characteristics, emphasizing the role of the epidemiological approaches to improve the risk perception and the compliance with the public health advice.