Your safety and well-being are paramount to us. While we do not anticipate any changes to our plans at this time, rest assured that we will make all prudent decisions to protect the health and safety of our members and guests. We encourage all guests to be responsible by monitoring their health, maintaining social distancing, masking if desired, and by keeping their vaccination status up to date. 

We ask all conference attendees to abide by personal hygiene guidance to prevent the spread of illness, including: 

• Handwashing and sanitizing often with soap and water, using alcohol-based sanitizer when soap and water are not available 

• Practicing respiratory etiquette by coughing or sneezing into the crook of the elbow rather than into hands.  

• Immediately isolating if symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, body aches or other symptoms related to COVID-19 or other communicable illness develop. 

The CRA has put in place the following safety measures at the Annual Scientific Meeting: 

• Hand sanitizers will be available throughout the conference space 

• Disposable face masks will be available at the Registration Desk upon request.  

• Delegates are encouraged to physically distance from one another and respect the comfort level of their fellow attendees. All guests will be asked to identify their proximity comfort level upon registration by selecting an appropriately coloured name badge lanyard.  Individual comfort levels will be easily identifiable by the colour of an individual’s lanyard:  

Green = fully comfortable with personal contact.

Yellow = please be cautious and respectful of space and any physical contact.

Red = please do not touch and maintain a reasonable distance.

If you start to feel unwell while at the ASM, please isolate and reach out to a CRA staff member by sending an email to info@rheum.ca to advise whether you require any assistance or if you have conference responsibilities that need to be reassigned (this information will be kept strictly confidential). All in person conference attendees will have virtual access via the mobile app or by clicking on the attendee access link emailed from no-reply@hopin.com.