New Jersey To Reopen Pools On June 22; Full Guidelines Should Come Tuesday

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says public and private pools in the state can reopen as of June 22, with more guidelines to come this week.

The coronavirus pandemic caused a closure of gyms and fitness facilities this spring. New Jersey will move to Stage 2 of its state-wide reopening plan next Monday (June 15th), and the governor indicated on Twitter today that pools would follow one week into stage 2.

The state should release “full guidance” tomorrow, which will outline what rules facilities must follow when they reopen. Other states have been reopening over the past month, many restricting facilities to one-half or one-quarter of their typical capacities, limiting pools to one swimmer per lane, and closing locker rooms or restricting locker room access.

New Jersey’s reopening plan should also allow gyms, libraries and museums to reopen in phase 2, although there are no specific dates for those facilities yet, according to NJ.com. Hair salons and barber shops can reopen on June 22 along with swimming pools.

Two New Jersey high school swimmers had publicly lobbied for the state to reopen pools in mid-May, arguing that competitive swimmers were disciplined enough to follow social distancing guidelines and other rules if facilities reopened.

According to the state’s website, New Jersey’s new cases of COVID-19 peaked in April and generally fell across the month of May. The state has had 12,214 confirmed deaths with COVID-19.

You can follow each state’s reopening process in our state-by-state pool reopening index.

1
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Swamererer
4 years ago

Incredible we can send our kids to daycare before we can swim outdoors in pools. I will never understand the logic

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

Read More »