Letting People Swim Helps The Economy

Pull out the togs and get into swimming to help New Zealand’s economic recovery is the advice from one of Auckland’s leading swimming schools.

“The impact of COVID-19 and the recent Level 4 and Level 3 lockdown has had a devasting impact on New Zealanders lives, but looking forward, it is increasingly clear that sport and swimming will help re-build our communities,’ says Mark Bone, Founder and CEO of SwimTastic.

“Swimming plays an important part of community health, not only from a safety and physical health perspective but benefits mental health as well,” said Mr Bone.

“When we look across the ditch, more than 250,000 swimming lessons have been missed each week alone in New South Wales because of COVID-19 closing the State’s swimming pools. While the figures for New Zealand aren’t known, we do know some kids may never return to get swimming lessons which increases their risk of drowning further down the track.”

Mr Bone said the good news for swimmers is that if you’re swimming in a pool with chlorine, the risk of contracting the virus is even lower as the coronavirus doesn’t survive in chlorinated water.

According to the World Health Organisation swimming in a well-maintained, properly chlorinated pool is safe, and according to the CDC there is no evidence that COVID-19 can spread to humans through water in pools.

“SwimTastic operates State-of-the-art filtration systems to properly disinfect our pool water through both UV (ultra-violate) light and Chlorine which is in line with CDC advice that proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of swimming facilities should inactivate the virus in the water. We also have an effective ventilation system for the air,” said Mr Bone.

The advice from the Ministry of Health also supports swimming saying it is healthy and fun, and swimming pools are safe and healthy environments.

We would certainly encourage people to get down to their local swimming pool as soon as possible, not only to help with their own physical and mental wellness, but in doing so it helps keep the local economy going which is positive news for the country,” said Mr Bone.

Notes for Editors:

By following and operating with the appropriate prevention/control measures in place, including by not limited to:

• physically distancing where appropriate, avoiding unnecessary contact and use of shared spaces such as changing rooms.
• limiting staff interaction with fellow staff and patrons.
• limiting occupancy within the facility and asking those that do not need to be there to simply drop the children off and return and mask wearing for visitors (parents and guardians).

These are all effective control and prevention methods for containing the virus spread to enable us to operate our swimming facility safely.

Mask wearing by our instructors and children in classes is not required and this is following the advice of the New Zealand Government (Covid-19 NZ, 2021)

Contract tracing methods is also compulsory, and visitors will need to sign in, using the Covid-19 tracer app or our single sign-in slips when entering the facility. We also have contact methods in place for the children swimming, through our class rolls.

The advice from the Ministry of Health also supports swimming saying it is healthy and fun, and swimming pools are safe and healthy environments (NZ, Ministry of Health, 2020).

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