Are you worried about transmission via water, or the guy in the lane with you doing 20x50m fly repeats breathing Covid19 down into your throat? These are two different transmission paths.

The pool rules are that you can share a lane but are not to stop at the same end of the pool. Although had to inform a lady about this. If it’s time and distance (time with someone and close to that person) then just passing in a pool seems to be fairly safe. Also the pool chemicals should kill the virus. But I’m a non-medical, non-virology, non-public health person and if there’s a significant risk of transmission in a public pool then that’s a consideration.

The typical chlorine level in a modern pool is about 10X greater than the amount it takes to destabilize, and thus inactive the virus. Even the light chlorine vapor evaporating from the pool is usually enough to stop or destabilize the virus. So this, and perhaps one person to a lane is plenty safe. You have nothing to worry about.

Especially if not sharing a lane, I think it's quite safe. The shower/locker room on the other hand...

This!

Since I'm back in the pool 4 or 5 days a week now, I too have been thinking about this. I "feel" like the passing in lanes next to each other would not be enough virus to ge one infected. And probably any that falls in the water is either dead, or dissipated to a non lethal dose too. My only concern is the huffing and puffing on the wall. We have one per lane, but we are often on the wall together spewing out the deepest bowels of our lungs. I remember that singer that got a whole room infected just from singing, the way we are breathing after a hard interval has to be many times that thrust.

So I guess that is the point to really avoid as much as possible, and I turn my head away from any folks that are on the wall when I will be. I try and place myself near the elderly and over weight too. I figure the odds of them being an unknowing spreader is limited. They might have a couple days of spreading, but will be sick way sooner than the 20 somethings that are also swimming. Just an odds thing, the poker player in me looking at the game..

Pool safe. Locker room germ breeding grounds. Change in your car and go straight to the pool. Dry out on the pool deck, throw on sweats or something and go home to shower.

The pool I use mandates people in odd lanes enter from the South and people in even lanes enter from the North, and if you're taking a break, do it on the side you enter.

They post signups for the lanes once a week, and all the slots are gone in under a minute. It would be impossible for someone to go 4-5 times a week, you're lucky!

Well you can do a bit of math to help understand the problem. Suppose 6 feet really is a safe distance. When you talk about 2 people at one end of the pool you aren’t that far away, so how much less safe could it be? The volume of air an infected person would fill with virus particles increases with probably some where between the square and cube of the distance. So at half the distance (3 feet) you could expect somewhere between 4 and 8 times as many virus particles. Dose is a combination of distance and duration, So hanging out at the same end and closer than 6 feet sounds like a bad idea. I would suggest you talk to the pool and see if they will have people alternate which end they can stop at. Better safe than sorry with this stuff.

I would also caution about the assumption that pool chemicals will inactivate the virus in the air. While it is true that they will, it isn’t an instantaneous process. I think the quickest time for disinfectants on surfaces is 30 seconds and that is slathering isopropyl alcohol on stuff. I really don’t have the slightest idea about pool air and haven’t heard anything, but I am guessing it isn’t at the top of people’s research priorities.

Well you can do a bit of math to help understand the problem. Suppose 6 feet really is a safe distance. When you talk about 2 people at one end of the pool you aren’t that far away, so how much less safe could it be? //

Well 6ft is the distance for people with masks, or talking quietly outdoors.We already know that a room can be filled with one persons virus singing, or a cough without a mask, so that is the math I will work with. But on my side we are outdoors in the sunlight, so most of that indoor dynamic should be gone. What I'm left with is direct force transmission in my direction. No masks of course, but my guess is that the dissipates pretty quickly. So the real hot spot is just the two of us on the wall, huffing and puffing. I think I will start to ask my lane mates if we can alternate which end to finish intervals on, and that should get rid of the worst of it. Right now I "usually" have dan and/or his wife next to me, and they are in my larger bubble at home, so I dont worry so much about them.


I would like to see a study on how long the virus can be airborne in direct sunlight, and some half life graph of that down to 0. That would be helpful in decision making. I did see one pool that put in plexiglass walls at the end of the lanes, which would stop direct cough spewing directly into your lane and face. I like that idea too, probably quite effective % wise in reducing any possible transmission.

There is no link to any infections from swimming in a chlorinated pool. Now could you become infected from exposure in the locker room? Sure. But it's not as simple as someone coughed on you once. Exposure has to be prolonged.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

https://www.cdc.gov/.../aquatic-venues.html

Outdoor pools better than indoor. The water is fine. It's everything else before & after you swim.

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

Monty, I am swimming in three venues:

1. Open water at the beach on the Ottawa River....no problem, just quickly walk past all the people crammed at the beach not distanced at all
2. Outdoor pool 4 people per double wide lane, swim up and down the black lines, 8 people in pool (only 4 lane pool)
3. Indoor pool same system as 2, but 8 lane pool so 16 in the pool at the same time, plus around 4 lifeguard staff. Its a massive volume triple story ceiling too

So on 2 and 3, I have the same problem as you, too many people hanging out at the wall in the shallow end totally not spacing, so I never do any "fixed set". If I get to rest at the wall without someone there then great, if not, do another 25m and go rest at the other end. My pool workouts end up being like "running fartlek"....completely random sets, but just happy to be swimming.

For outdoor pool, no change rooms. Indoor pool, there are barely 6-10 people in a massive change room given the spread between genders and respective change rooms. Everyone seems pretty good to put on masks quickly once they are dry. I am less worried about the indoor pool than my grocery store.

It also appears that the city has prudently chosen to open the "newer indoor pools" which generally have more space and better ventilation and more cubic meters of air above the pool (higher ceiling).

Honestly I am more worried about opening my office and putting my employees back in there in an enclosed space all day not being able to open windows and no certainty from my landlord about what the real air circulation and turnover is life....so everyone is gonna keep working from home for a while longer even though cases here have really dropped down overall (albeit, we're on the early growth curve again after months of suppression work by all in society....now its turning into a bit of a free for all wrt to bars and night clubs....)

At my pool, the Catskill Rec Center, in Arkville NY, we swim 1 person to a standard lane. You can reserve your lane for 1 hour per day, no lockers, no showers. I don't think there will be any problems, the pool is in Delaware County where there are only 7 active cases. It's great to be back swimming. We are even having a swim/run fundraiser. It's not a race, you just swim for an hour and then run the three mile jogging trail outside. You do it on your own time and record your results.

Yes, it's good to be back!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

does exposure have to be prolonged?
surely one cough containing the virus, inhaled or otherwise absorbed by you, is sufficient. the odds may be low but i don't think it can be right to say exposure has to be prolonged, just that the risk from a short exposure is low.
touching a surface someone coughed on a while earlier and then touching your face could be sufficient

surely one cough containing the virus, inhaled or otherwise absorbed by you, is sufficient. //

This is my biggest worry in the pool. I know that I'm exhaling at enormous speeds and frequency when I hit the wall, so assume others are doing the same. I'm curious though, how does one otherwise absorb the virus other than inhaling? I remember awhile back someone thought that it could enter through the eyes, but think that was debunked, and of course we always have our goggles on in swimming..

I started back last week swimming solo. My masters started July 5-ish but I’ve opted out of that for now, they have up to 5 people per lane across 7 lanes. Each swimmer staggered so one on each end, 3 in the middle. Doesn’t seem ideal for me for now. Not all days are full up but they lost one pool location so there are more at “our” pool than normal.

That said I think as others have said the transmission risk is not the water. I have two pools I can reserve a either 45 minute or 50 minute sessions. I show up with jammers on, after I deck change and split. I’m actually quite happy at the moment showing up, having my lane to myself and getting my workout in. I’m not too concerned about the person(s) a lane over, at least not yet. Haven’t been doing 95% efforts and likely not to for a while. If someone was huffing and puffing I’d just switch to stopping at the other end

For a "direct force" to can look at the exhaled breath as a cone. That changes linearly. the dose at 3 feet is twice that of 6 feet, but from the way you describe it, that is probably a potentially significant dose either way.

UV light is effective, but isn't very fast enough to prevent that type of transmission. I think my virologist buddy talks about setting the Amazon box out in direct sun for 2 hours to kill any surface contamination.