Montreal Gazette

Social distancing at indoor pools

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I'm a swimmer and it does me good. However, I have mixed feelings about the social distancing in Montreal area indoor pools. I made a few phone calls to public pools in Toronto and Vancouver to see how they are handling the situation.

In Ontario, it seems they are using a reservatio­n system that permits one person per lane, to provide appropriat­e social distancing between swimmers.

In Vancouver, the general rule is to allow six swimmers per lane; however, they have doubled the width of the lanes to maintain about two metres distancing between swimmers.

By contrast, in Montreal, four people are currently being allowed to swim in each standard-size lane. In this case, we are continuall­y passing other swimmers either in our lane or the adjacent one at a distance of from one to two feet.

However, the Côte-st-luc aquatic centre, for one, allows reservatio­ns to be made for one person per lane, unless additional persons are members of the same household.

I was fortunate to swim outdoors during the summer at a facility that allowed no more than two swimmers per each double-size lane.

I certainly want to continue swimming in the fall. But I'm not certain the current provincial guidelines are taking into account the recommende­d distancing to keep us safe.

Robert Miller, N.D.G.

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