January 14, 2021

We may have all heard the term “social distancing” enough to last us a lifetime but that doesn’t mean our facilities should loosen up on guidelines offered by your government, local health departments or the CDC. One of the big questions we have heard is, “How are you managing the social distancing in your locker rooms and with your showers?”  We recommend you ALWAYS check with your local government pages as to the current mandates and recommendations.

If you are in need of some creative solution when your locker rooms and showers are not able to be open, these are what some facilities are doing:

• Set up temporary changing stations on the pool deck to allow safe space for their members.
• Encourage the member(s) shower on pool deck to rinse off, before and after using the pool.
• Recommend to your patrons to shower at home before and/or after when possible.
• If you have your locker rooms and showers open, please consider increasing the sanitizing and disinfecting procedures throughout the day.

We have found that facilities are posting rule reminders throughout their buildings as well as within locker rooms and they are not finding any issues arise with members violating the social distancing “rules”.

Do you have creative solutions at your facility if your locker rooms or showers have not been able to open? Email us at rewards@nihca.org with your solutions or a future question you would like addressed.