Covid-19 transmissions at swimming pools (FOI)

Request

Please can you advise how many cases of Covid-19 have been tracked and confirmed as transmitted at Swimming pools in Jersey.

Please break down as to whether those pools are public / private, and also advise how many can be attributed to Les Quennevais, and how many to the Aqua Splash. If there is no data to suggest confirmed transition, can you please confirm why a chlorinated pool is categorised in the same way as a gym as to risk of transmission.

Response

It is very rarely possible to be exact about where a person has contracted the virus / where it has been transmitted as there are usually many interactions that take place over a period of time.

To date the information we have states less than five cases have been linked, not transmitted at swimming pools in Jersey. As the number is less than five we are not permitted to share any information.

We do not believe the release of swimming pool names is in the public’s interest.

We track and trace at all premises to which a positive case has been linked or visited. To single out one or a number of venues would not be proportionate.

Article applied

Article 33 - Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 33 (b) allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in knowing the identity of the relevant venues, we believe that the disclosure of this information could be prejudicial to the commercial interests of the businesses concerned.

Swimming pools have been treated similarly as part of the exercise and fitness sector. It is not possible for the government to write individual policy positions for sub-sectors of each sector. Therefore pools were both closed, opened and closed again as part of low to moderate exercise. Similar to gyms, sport changing rooms in pools have been restricted as this represents risk of spread from contact with others and surface contamination.