THE long-awaited return of college basketball faces hurdles once again after the government's decision to place Metro Manila under Alert Level 3 beginning on Jan. 3.
Acting Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles made the announcement on Friday after the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Emergence of Infectious Diseases acted on the sudden surge of Covid-19 cases during the holidays.
The directive means that collegiate teams will be barred from returning to their bubble trainings as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) only allowed the practices to be held for places under Alert Levels 1 and 2.
Alert Level 3 will be raised over the National Capital Region (NCR) until at least January 15.
That should come as a bummer for varsity teams that have not seen action since March 2020, and this could push back the planned opening of the leagues, particularly of the UAAP and the NCAA, further from their planned March tip-off.
CHED green light
Before Friday's announcement, college teams have been given the CHED green light to return to training in bubble practices.
Only fully vaccinated student-athletes and coaches are allowed to join in the training sessions, as per the agreement in the CHED-approved health guidelines.
Positive COVID-19 cases have been on an upswing for the past few days partly due to the holiday season, with the new cases once again going up to 1,623 on Dec. 30 and 2,961 for Dec. 31, and possibly higher in the coming days.
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