After releasing a statement yesterday which advised all clubs to postpone/cancel any upcoming activites during the coronavirus outbreak, Swim England have clarified why they are ‘advising’ clubs to do this rather than enforcing a rule that they do.
CEO of Swim England, Jane Nickerson, has said that “the most important reason is due to insurance”. Their newest statement describes how, if Swim England were to order all clubs to cancel activities but some didn’t heed the ruling, those clubs would be at risk of not being full insured.
Nickerson added that issuing guidance means that “clubs can then carry out their own risk assessment to determine if they can continue to safely deliver activities”.
This essentially means that if a club chooses to ignore the advice given to them by Swim England, their insurance policy should not be affected (provided they have carried out adequate risk assessment and documented their decisions).
However, Nickerson emphasised that the outlines they have provided for clubs is based on “stronger advice from the Government to avoid non-essential activities and ensure social distancing”. She added that “the health and wellbeing of everyone is our primary importance”.
The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has ramped up measures to tackle the coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic in recent days, announcing yesterday that all schools are to close indefinitely this Friday.
As of publishing there are 226, 595 confirmed cases worldwide with 9,300 deaths. 84, 374 people are said to have recovered from the disease after contracting it.