Outdoor activities in Oxford could be banned due to EEE risk

for right now, we're live here in Medford Munashe Kwangwari NBC 10 Boston. Thank you. Munashe. 507 right now, one community that is at a critical risk level for triple E is considering taking drastic action. Officials in Oxford now looking to join neighboring communities in implementing a controversial solution. NBC 10 S Alysha Palumbo is live in Oxford this morning to explain. So what is this? Alysha apparently it could ruin a lot of plans. Yeah, that's right. Lauren I mean, you think about it. Youth sports seasons for soccer, football and cheer are really just getting underway. Or even about to get underway. But with the state's first confirmed human case of triple E last week here in central Mass, multiple towns that are at critical or high risk in this area are beginning to impose a curfew of sorts to limit exposure to infected mosquitoes when they're most active from dusk until dawn. Today, the Board of Health here in Oxford is going to recommend no outdoor activities after 6 p.m. through September and after 5 p.m. in October until the first hard frost. Webster is imposing a similar curfew and did town wide spraying for mosquitoes last night. Obviously limiting outdoor activities after 5 or 6 p.m. seriously hampers practice times for youth sports, which have to happen after school and generally after parents get home from work. But the director of public health services here in Oxford says triple E has had a 51% mortality rate in Massachusetts since 2000 and should not be taken lightly. This is a really serious illness and so we want residents to be aware it's in our area. We've had a positive human case in our immediate region, and so we want people to be mindful of that because we really we don't want anybody else to get sick. This basically shuts our season down from day one. We can't afford to find another place to play. Neighboring towns are already closing. We just don't have the options to go elsewhere. Now, parents with Oxford Webster youth football and cheer are obviously frustrated. They say while they understand the risks, they want to be able to make the decision for their own children on whether they practice outside