Thoughts on swimming pools in the age of Coronavirus?

[Anonymous]

My gym has a great indoor pool. We’ve been avoiding playgrounds and other indoor activities (including the gym kids area) but I’m on the fence about the indoor pool. The water is chlorinated and it seems like a great way for the kids to get some exercise safely. Plus the kids have swim lessons later this week

The changing rooms are individual showers with doors that lock. And they’re right by the entrance. I was at the gym last week and they were constantly cleaning and disinfecting the counters, equipment, hand rails, everything. Basically, it’s super clean. It was noticeably much less crowded than usual. They also provide towels so we don’t have to bring soaking wet towels to our house. Nobody in my family is sick. All of our extended family is out of state, so we won’t be having contact with older people anytime soon. The kids are 5 and under. I am pregnant, so I guess I’m part of a vulnerable group, but I’m currently healthy.

What would you do?

Is it okay to go? Ridiculous? Also, please share if you’ve seen any official guidelines about this - especially if it’s from an epidemiologist, CDC or similar.

[Anonymous]

MoCo is closing all its indoor pools. I'm wondering about the outdoor ones, ours is scheduled to open in just over a month.

[Anonymous]

This got discussed in another thread about swimming lessons.

Posters there pointed out that viruses often live well in moist environments--and while the pool itself is chlorinated, the changing rooms/showers are wet with non-chlorinated water all the time. A cough is going to linger in that moist dressing-room air. And did you see the very recent news that coronavirus does live on surfaces for days? So add to doorknobs other surfaces like sinks, benches, locker doors for potentially contaminated surfaces used by many strangers.

So pools would be a hard no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo is closing all its indoor pools. I'm wondering about the outdoor ones, ours is scheduled to open in just over a month.

We just got an email telling us to register (and pay) and then they will see how it goes. No word on possible refund if they can’t open, but I would imagine.

[Anonymous]

nope

[Anonymous]

Waiting for swim lesson providers to shut it down.

[Anonymous]

DC pools are closing on Monday, along with the rest of DPR. I was considering taking my kid one more time and skipping the changing room, but she has a cough and runny nose, so we’re staying home.