Your safety and well-being are paramount to us, and we will make all prudent decisions to protect the health and safety of our members and guests. We encourage all conference attendees to be responsible for their health by monitoring for symptoms, maintaining social distancing and masking if desired, and 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 or using alcohol-based sanitizer when soap and water are unavailable.  
• Practicing respiratory etiquette by coughing or sneezing into the elbow crook rather than into your hands.   
• Isolating if symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, body aches, or other symptoms 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 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.