After three positive cases since the start of voluntary workouts July 1, and two last week, all sports workouts have been shut down in the Exeter School District this week, according to a letter emailed to parents.

“We think it’s prudent to suspend all current sports teams’ voluntary workouts from Monday, Aug. 17, to Saturday, Aug. 22,” athletic director Tom Legath wrote in a letter dated Aug. 15.

Voluntary football workouts were suspended Aug. 11 and cross country workouts were suspended Aug. 13 when one student-athlete in each sport tested positive for COVID-19.

Legath notes in the letter that recently updated Pennsylvania Department of Education guidelines recommend that after two positive cases within a 14-day period it is recommended that school activities get shut down from three to five days.

Exeter’s voluntary workouts can resume Aug. 23.

According to the updated guidelines, which are dated Aug. 13, if five or more students or staff members in the same school building test positive in a given 14-day period, it is recommended a school close for 14 days. It is not clear whether Exeter’s most recent positive tests came from junior or senior high student-athletes.

In letters sent to parents earlier last week, the district encouraged football players and staff to self-quarantine until Aug. 25 and for cross country runners and staff to self-quarantine until Aug. 24.

Official football practice will begin Aug. 31, with a week of PIAA-mandated heat acclimatization workouts.

Cross country will resume on Aug. 24, the official BCIAA start date for practice for non-contact sports.

The current shutdown affects all fall sports at the high school and junior high levels, including boys and girls soccer, field hockey, girls tennis, boys and girls cross country, girls volleyball and boys and girls water polo, and golf.

“We’re hoping for a 31st restart (for football), but that’s not a guarantee,” Exeter superintendent Dr. Kimberly Minor told the Reading Eagle last week. “Let’s say we get more positive tests after this week, that might be enough to say: ‘We don’t feel that we can do it.’ We’re not there yet, but we’ll see what happens between now and the 31st.”

The letter to football parents indicated that players may have been exposed to the coronavirus at practice between July 30 and Aug. 10. The letter to cross country parents indicated exposure could have happened at practice on Aug. 6. High school and junior high runners train together one day per week.

Minor told the Eagle she believed the school district’s health and safety guidelines regarding COVID-19 are sound.

“In each case we haven’t had transmission to other players on the team,” Minor said. “If our protocols were incorrect we would’ve seen other positives. Time will tell, but on the original football (case) no one else became positive.”