UAE SPORT Temperature checks, sterilisation and spitting ban: Dubai Sports Council outlines rules for reopening
Sports activities recommenced in Dubai yesterday under strict new safety guidelines.
New regulations for the return to sport after Eid Al Fitr included mandatory temperature checks, sterilisation of shared equipment, and a ban on spitting.
Dubai Sports Council distributed an eight-page document detailing the regulations, including a breakdown of the safety measures the sports establishments themselves need to put in place, as well as plans for individual sports.
No tournaments or events can take place, while venues are restricted to a maximum of 50 per cent capacity, with a recommendation of one person per four square metres per facility.
The measures include “compulsory wearing of masks for all staff and trainers on premises,” while DSC also recommended staff use “protective goggles, or a face shield while dealing with visitors”.
Commonly used items such as “medicine balls, dumb bells, kettlebells, weight belts, bars and plates” must be used “on strict calendarisation basis”.
That means no two people can use equipment at the same time, and it must be sanitised prior to use by another individual. A personal trainer is allowed “a maximum two trainees only with a minimum 2-metre distance to be maintained,” according to the rules.
Recommendations for football training include a maximum of 20 players with five coaches – four players per coach – on a full-sized pitch split into four sections.
“Equipment should be touched only by the player/ coach and should be sanitised (at least once per hour, including balls, target boards, cones, tables, etc.),” the DSC guidelines state.
“Preferable to use new set of balls after every reservation/ training session. Ball collection and pickups to be performed strictly by staff.
“Changing sides are after each set is not permitted.”
Measures for tennis include the recommendation that a new set of balls be used “after every training session”.
Coaches were encouraged to use a ball machine for lessons, “as it avoids having people touch the balls,” and “using ball tubes and basket pickups to pick up loose balls”.
Some golf clubs around the country had been open in recent weeks, but regulations for that were also set out by DSC. It stated: “Three golfers [are] allowed per tee time only, with each group at 10-minute intervals. “Bag drops will be not be operational, golfers will be asked to place their own bags on carts.”
“If your bag is in clubhouse storage, the venue staff will collect it for you.
“Golf carts will be for single occupancy use only, but single family group sharing is allowed. Removal of pin flags to be only by authorised staff. Bunker rakes to be removed, use feet or back of a club to ‘rake’ bunkers.”