Attendance at indoor Stanford sporting events will be restricted to student-athlete families, Stanford Athletics announced in a press release on Tuesday. Spectators will still be allowed at outdoor events, but they will be required to wear masks and abide by social distancing guidelines. 

Stanford Athletics cites “additional COVID-19 safety precautions” as the driving factor for the policy change, which takes effect immediately and primarily impacts the university’s nine winter sports. 

This policy change comes as winter classes begin with two weeks of online instruction and the nation reels from a surge in cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant. 146 Stanford students are in isolation for COVID-19 as of Jan. 3 and, as of Jan. 4, Stanford’s home county of Santa Clara has a seven-day average of 1,316 new COVID-19 cases.

“After thorough consultation with medical advisors and University leadership, it became very clear that implementing these measures is the right thing to do to protect our community at this time,” Jaquish and Kenninger Director of Athletics Bernard Muir said in the release.

Stanford Athletics will restore full spectator capacity “as soon as appropriate,” according to the release.

Individuals who have purchased tickets to Stanford Athletics events affected by the policy change will receive an email from [email protected] with more information in the coming days.