State-By-State Coronavirus Pool Reopening Index

After weeks with the sport more-or-less shutdown across the globe by the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a flurry of countries and states starting to reopen pools and workout facilities. To help SwimSwam readers keep up, we’re presenting our index of U.S. states that have begun reopening pools in some form or another.

This is a fast-breaking, constantly changing piece of the swimming landscape at the moment. We’ll try to update this index whenever we learn new information, but we may not always be 100% up-to-date on the happenings in every state. If you know something we don’t, please let us know in the comment section so we can work on confirming and reporting it, plus updating the index.

As pools reopen, every state and/or local governing body will have various rules and guidelines in place to keep swimmers protected from the coronavirus and the associated COVID-19 illness. For the sake of brevity, we’ll try to roughly summarize the restrictions for each state in the index below. In every case, though, there will be much more nuance than we can fit in a brief sentence or two. For more full information, click on the name of the state to follow a link to our full report on that state’s reopening.

States With Pools Re-opening Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

State Date Details
Alabama 5/11 50% capacity
Alaska 5/10 50% capacity
Arizona 5/15 50% capacity
Arkansas 5/22 50% capacity as of May 22; High Schools & Clubs can resume training & competition as of June 1
California 5/20 Counties could begin reopening pools by June 12
Colorado 6/4 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is fewer
Connecticut 6/17 50% capacity on June 17
Delaware 5/22 Community Pools at 20% capacity, no swim lessons or team practices
Florida 5/22 some localities have allowed pools to begin to reopen under a patchwork of restrictions, while all youth sports have had their restrictions lifted
Georgia 5/14 10 or fewer people, or 6 feet of space per person
Hawaii June* Phase 2 – no earlier than June, county mayors can make decisions
Idaho 5/16 Indoor gyms can start socially distanced lap swim in Phase 2 (May 16), outdoor pools in Phase 3 (May 30), with occupancy limits
Illinois 6/5 10-person max (as of June 5), 50% capacity or 50-person max (as of June 26)
Indiana 5/22 Adhering to Social Distancing Guidelines, excluding Lake, Cass, and Marion counties
Iowa 5/22 No specific regulations, “reasonable measures” for enhanced hygiene and distancing
Kansas 6/1* In phase 2, no earlier than June 1
Kentucky 6/1 Pools designated for training or exercise can reopen, 1-per-lane, beginning June 1
Louisiana 5/15 Lap Swimming can resume at 25% capacity
Maine June* Phase 2 – opening date to be determined in June
Maryland 5/29 25% capacity (all counties by Montgomery)
Massachusetts 6/8 40% capacity, indoor & outdoor pools, youth sports limited to groups of 12 of less
Michigan 6/8 Outdoor pools can open June 8 at 50% capacity, some southeast Michigan counties will remain closed longer
Minnesota 6/10 50% capacity as of June 10
Mississippi 5/7 six feet apart, maximum 20 people
Missouri June* St. Louis County wants to reopen pools by early June, but no set date
Montana 5/15 50% capacity for pools at gyms or licensed public accomodation
Nebraska 6/1 Pools reopening at 50% capacity June 1, except four hard-hit counties
Nevada 5/29 50% capacity as of May 29
New Hampshire 6/1 Pools can reopen June 1 with scheduled reservations for lap swimming
New Jersey 6/22/2020 (outdoor); 7/2/2020 (indoor) Outdoor pools at 50% capacity. Indoor pools at 25% capacity/1 swimmer per lane per direction
New Mexico 6/1 50% capacity
New York 6/11 Outdoor pools can reopen, but no specific guidelines yet
North Carolina 5/22 50% capacity
North Dakota did not issue stay-at-home order, pools can operate under social distancing and hygiene guidelines
Ohio 5/26 Pools can open if regulated by local health departments
Oklahoma 6/1 Fully reopened, no limits on capacity or group size as of phase 3
Oregon 6/5 Pools can open in Phase 2 with one swimmer per lane. Some counties could move to phase 2 by June 5
Pennsylvania 6/5 Outdoor pools can open in “yellow” phase, indoor pools in “green” phase. All counties in at least yellow as of June 11.
Rhode Island 6/1 Only 15 people at a time
South Carolina 5/18 Smaller of 20% capacity or 5 people per 1000 square feet
South Dakota No stay-at-home order was issued, though some aquatic facilities have closed
Tennessee 5/15 Gyms and pools allowed to reopen in May, following CDC guidelines
Texas 5/8 25% capacity
Utah 5/19 50 people or less in some areas, 1 per lane in others
Vermont 5/19 Outdoor Pools & swimming facilities can reopen May 19, no date yet on indoor pools
Virginia 5/15 Outdoor lap swimming only, 1-per-lane
Washington 6/10 Appointment-only lap swim and club swim teams at 25% of facility capacity in “modified phase 1”
Washington, D.C. no date yet Pools can reopen in stage 3 with limited capacity and safeguards, stage 1 could begin as early as May 29
West Virginia 5/30 No restrictions announced yet
Wisconsin 5/13 Locality-by-locality
Wyoming 5/1 1 person per lane

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Dead inside
2 years ago

Ah, people used to have so much hope about things reopening

Jolynn Swimmer
3 years ago

WA- this may only applies to Seattle area, PNS that has much nore 19 cases. We could open our pools – city/private club pools in phase 1, but not in Eastern WA yet in phase 2.

Gregory Spire Swim San Diego
3 years ago

I would hope that even former Olympic coaches follow strong safety protocols but in Friday I witnessed the opposite. Come on people we don’t want another shutdown.

cynthia curran
3 years ago

Hope things go good.

Matt Hausmann
3 years ago

Massachusetts – you have the “regulation” correct but the reality wrong. Most towns have decided not to open their outdoor pools all summer.

SwimMom
3 years ago

California finally permitted pools to open June 12, but counties still must approve reopenings based on local epidemiological data. https://covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-fitness.pdf

Watersportsforlife
3 years ago

http://chng.it/pfYVMjvs

Please consider this petition to open Texas pools. Many of our USA swim dive and water polo sports rent school district buildings. Our clubs can not get into these building to train at all. The districts are only opening pools to students in districts to strength and conditioning. This is not associated at all with usa water sports. It leaves out all the 10 and unders. It leaves out all the kids who train in clubs outside of their school districts. It’s a mess. If we can not get enough support our USA water teams most likely will not have pools all summer. Please help the sport needs help. I could… Read more »

Coach Mike 1952
3 years ago

Announcements about St. Louis & YMCA pools re-opening: STL pools can re-open June 15. Gateway Region YMCA’s at select locations plan to reopen – Carondelet Park Rec Complex, Downtown St. Louis YMCA at the MX, O’Fallon Park Rec Complex, South City Family YMCA – & pools at these facilities that have them will re-open June 22. It is not clear yet if outdoor pools can or will be included since there was no mention of the same. Only a couple YMCA’s have them anyway, such as Carondelet & O’Fallon Rec Complex. It’s a long-awaited start regardless though.

Coach Mike 1952
Reply to  Coach Mike 1952
3 years ago

Also STL Metro area pools in various municipalities open per their own city’s determinations. Some are closed all summer, others will open.

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 …

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