Health Ministry sets out provisional guidelines for reopening Spain’s public swimming pools but no word yet on residential complex facilities

THE Health Ministry has set out provisional guidelines for the reopening of Spain’s public swimming pools following the coronavirus crisis, but has still not provided specific information relating to the use of pools in private residential complexes.

Currently being circulated to the country’s regional governments, the public pool guidelines feature a series of regulations.

Temperature controls for allowing access to facilities is one of the principal measures contained in the document.

Other recommended steps include carrying out a full daily disinfection, especially in communal areas and in enclosed spaces.

Showers before and after bathing will be obligatory and using waterslides will be prohibited. Also banned will be ball games in the pools, diving, splashing and taking inflatables into the water.

Efforts will have to be made to ensure social distancing inside and outside the water.

Lifeguards will be responsible for looking out for strict compliance with safety measures designed to prevent Covid-19 infection.

Commenting on the public pool issue this week, Health Minister Salvador Illa called for caution and prudence in the use of public pools once the evolution of the Covid-19 situation allows facilities to open their doors once more, stressing that for now it is not possible.

“When the time comes we will give instructions if they can be used and under what conditions”, Illa said.

The CAF Madrid association for property administrators has meanwhile demanded both the autonomous community government and the Health Ministry provide instructions in relation to the possible reopening of the some 12,000 community pools in the region’s residential complexes.

The equivalent association in the Catalonia region asked for measures to guarantee social distancing in pools and rules on using other facilities which could be contagion focal points, like changing rooms, lavatories and washbasins.

And earlier this week the national association for administrators called on the central government to come to a decision before the start of summer on when residential complex communal pools can reopen, under what conditions, and the protocols communities will have to follow.