A day after sports teams, leagues and organizations were told no competition could happen until the end of September within Interior Health, the health authority has changed course.

An email sent to Kamloops city council this morning from Interior Health COVID Response Team Leader, Jennifer Jacobsen, said “good news, we have changed our direction on team sports.”

The brief email says team sports are now allowed under the gathering and events order, and says spectator capacity will also align with the same order, mentioning up to 100 spectators will be allowed outdoors.

“I hope to have further information published on our IHA website later today,” the email from Jacobsen said.

NL News has reached out to Interior Health for more information.

This new direction comes as sports teams had been told no competition was allowed, indoors or outdoors, until the end of September, with no spectators allowed indoors and up to 50 spectators outdoors. Teams were told they can only hold practices, which would be allowed with up to 50 people. The orders only applied to Interior Health and no other regions of the province.

It’s unclear so far exactly how those directive will be changed.

With the understanding no competition could happen, City of Kamloops events supervisor Sean Smith said on Wednesday that the National Slo Pitch Association was moving the Slo Pitch Nationals out of Kamloops, as the Tournament Capital Ranch was supposed to host that event next week.

“I think they had more than 160 teams registered, and unfortunately we had to say it’s just not permitted to go ahead. So that’s a big one, it’s going to really impact our community,” Smith said.

More to come.