Some young ice hockey players were celebrating Thursday after the Monroe County Health Department lifted the temporary pause on the sport.

"It means a lot to local athletes. There’s a larger impact to that pause being lifted, obviously it affects the athletes, it affects local rinks," said Chris Woodworth, executive director of Bills Gray’s Regional Iceplex.

A COVID-19 outbreak caused things to pause for a month, which started on April 6.

The health department says since high-risk sports began in February, ice hockey was mentioned nearly 400 times during contact tracing.  

“Over the course of March and April, we had at least one positive case on two out of every three days, something we did not see with any other sport, resulting in at least 125 known cases related directly to ice hockey," said Monroe County Commissioner of Public Health Dr. Michael Mendoza.

The public health commissioner says ice rinks can resume youth hockey events if they meet special conditions listed by the county to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Measures from the county include more signage and more safety protocols in shared spaces like locker rooms and team benches.

Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex management says these measures are already in place at their facility. 

“I’m happy to see that they’re going to interact with rinks and really assure everybody is doing what they need to do. I can tell you, though, that everything that’s on this list are things we’ve been doing since we reopened in July. We’ve actually gone many steps farther than that,” said Woodworth.

The iceplex says, unlike youth ice hockey, COVID-19 cases did not spike with competitive adult hockey.

"Everybody involved with the youth hockey, parents, coaches, that organizational level have to do everything they can to monitor the children for the duration of the activity, meaning in the locker room," Woodworth said.

During the pause on youth ice hockey, Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex says it canceled a tournament estimated to bring in $200,000 to $300,000 to the regional economy. The iceplex is hopeful the county's partnerships with venues, people getting vaccinations and youth organizations and parents helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 will allow summer tournaments to take place.

Mendoza says parents can take a simple step to make sure their kids' sports programs aren't frozen again.

“The sooner you can have your children vaccinated, the sooner they can engage in sports of any kind with a safer standpoint, and this will be safer for our community in general,” he said.