British Medical Journal report on COVID-19 factors

Hi all,

The BMJ released a fascinating article on the factors influencing infection rates of COVID-19. It’s worth a read.

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223

It basically discusses how the 2-metre rule is largely outdated, and the virus can travel much farther and stay in the air for much longer, especially in certain situations.

But the most interesting part is this chart they provided indicated different situations and activities, and the relative risk involved. Swimming would be in the last grouping (no face coverings, contact for a prolonged time), and the last line (shouting, singing) as that group includes forceful breathing. You can see that all indoor situations are considered high risk. The 3-week training experiment we ran in the summer with the town, mitigated that risk considerably by only having 8 swimmers in the pool, and always separated by 5 metres or so. But you can see a normal swim practice would easily by high risk.

We will be considering all of this information, and determining how we can keep our swimmers and coaches safe when we return to the water.