Sun, sand and coronavirus: Australia aims to enforce a COVID-safe summer
Sydney: As temperatures rise and state borders ease, Australians are looking forward to getting back to the beach for daily swimming and domestic holidays.
Warmer weather in the autumn was a pressure test of the public’s ability to adhere to COVID-19 restrictions early in the pandemic, and authorities are working hard to minimise scenes of crowding at beaches this summer.
Most states appear to have contained community transmission of COVID-19, but beachgoers will not be able to forget about the pandemic when going for a swim.
The risk of coronavirus spreading in mucus in the water, new life-saving protocols and crowd control measures are set to alter the beachgoing experience.
Surf lifesavers across all jurisdictions will continue to conduct water rescues without restrictions, but authorities in each state have brought in slightly different rules around administering first aid and CPR on beaches. In June, the Australian Resuscitation Council considered how some elements of CPR posed a risk for COVID-19 transmission, advice which is reflected in several states’ surf lifesaving rules.
Mouth-to-mouth out
The director of lifesaving at Surf Life Saving NSW, Joel Wiseman, says that while “mouth-to-mouth is definitely out of the equation during COVID”, responders will still perform CPR.
He says lifesavers will use an oxygen therapy mask to release oxygen into the lungs, rather than suction (when a tube is used to clear a patient’s airways).
Chest compressions on the shore will be administered while the lifesaver wears a mask, but if a rescue boat is used to retrieve a patient and they require compressions while still in the water, it can be done without a mask.