Last reviewed: March 2022

The Prime Minister has announced the UK Government’s strategy for living with COVID in England, in a detailed four-point plan which moves away from Government restrictions and towards personal responsibility to manage the virus and removing all remaining domestic restrictions in law.

Typhoon continues to prioritise your family’s health, as well as that of our staff and the wider community. As such, the following points will remain in force:

• We ask all customers to observe that if they feel unwell, for any reason, to consider the wider impact of attending one of our locations, and if another family member, relative or friend can offer you/your family a lift.
• We recommend to all staff to continue to take twice-weekly Covid tests.
• Some locations may continue to enforce a one-way system. This is driven due to happily discovering safer ways to manage the flow of people at entrance/exit points. Please, therefore, still pay attention to directional arrows.
• Typhoon will continue to maintain our extensive hygiene processes, as well as hand sanitising stations until further notice.
• Spectator seating shall continue to be spaced apart.
• Mask wearing is entirely optional, if someone is wearing a mask please respect their decision and give them additional space.

For more information, please see the full plan for Living with COVID in England and contact us if you have HR questions concerning your business and people management.

We wish to reassure you that Typhoon is actively monitoring Covid-19 developments via official Government communications, sporting regulatory bodies and the national news outlets.

Please continue to check this web page as we will regularly be reviewing the information here and updating it to the best of our ability. This guidance is not supposed to replace official or medical advice, and as always – use common sense.

The blow information is now out of date. The Government has announced a strategy for living with COVID in England. Please see the section at the top of this page.

The information below is being kept on this page for reference.

All of our swimming pools receive multiple daily tests of the water quality for both pH and disinfectant levels.

In addition to this, our pool and gym facilities have a regular cleansing regime, ensuring that the facility complies with strict Environmental Public Health Regulations at all times.

It’s interesting to note that a spokesperson for The Pool Water Treatment and Advisory Group has said “water and chlorine within swimming pools will help to kill the novel coronavirus” (source)

This means that from an infection control point of view, our swimming pools and sports sites are relatively safe and hygienic areas to be when compared to other indoor environments.

This level of hygiene is a regular standard for Typhoon and our venues; the above is practised all year-round as a matter of course – not just in reaction to Covid-19. That said, we have increased our cleaning regime even more, particularly with regards to touchpoints, to ensure as much safety for you and your family as possible.

If anyone in your household feels unwell:

People who feel unwell should stay at home and not come to our sites. This applies all year-round, not just during viral outbreaks or global pandemics.

30th July 2020 update: The UK Government has announced if you are suffering from Covid-19 like symptoms (either a cough that is continuous and new and/or a temperature over 37.8 degrees Celsius) to self-isolate for at least 10 days, call 119 to book a coronavirus test and to seek medical advice if your condition worsens

Please click here to read the latest Government Guidance on self-isolation

How you can help us

Regardless of the controls in place to keep our pools safe from infection, we are reminding all of our parents and swimmers, should they feel unwell, or think that they are suffering from something that someone else might catch, to refrain from attending our sites until they are feeling better.

This is very much for the benefit of all our children, parents and staff, as well as that of the individual concerned.

We are placing these temporary measures in place, effective immediately until further notice:

• New guidance: Swimmers must only be accompanied by adults under the age of 70
• swimmers MUST come ‘beach ready’, wearing their costume under their clothes. Other sports must come ‘sport ready’, all-set and primed to participate straight away
• parents and children should wash their hands with soap and water:
  • before leaving home
  • on arrival
  • after using the toilet
  • before eating any food, including snacks
  • before and after touching your face
  • after contacting any touchpoint, such as door handles
  • if you take public transport to our lessons
• cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue (or your elbow if no tissue is immediately available) then throw the tissue in a bin and wash your hands: Catch it, Bin it, Kill it
• use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.
• we have installed hand sanitising stations throughout our facilities
• avoid close contact with people who are unwell
• only enter the premises for your lesson 5 minutes before the start time
• leave the premises as soon as possible after your lesson has ended
• if you are worried about your symptoms or those of your child, please call NHS 111.

Tip: if possible, try to open doors using elbows, feet or a tissue/handkerchief and when turning off taps cup your hands with water and pour/rinse over the tap handle to avoid a touch-point spread (do this after you have washed your hands, but before you turn the tap off!)

We are also implementing the following additional precautions:

• increasing the frequency of all our cleaning – particularly of touchpoints
• staff are briefed on the current government advice
• staff likewise will adhere to the above bullet points

The risk to our customers

Evidence is suggesting that Covid-19 presents its highest risk to older members of society and those with respiratory or cardiovascular issues, decreased immune systems, diabetes or obesity. Individuals who do not fit those above categories are at a lower risk. Currently, it looks like children (who have no underlying conditions) are the lowest risk group.

It is therefore perhaps sensible to think about those most vulnerable and to limit their exposure to children. With that in mind, please avoid any at-risk person accompanying your child to their lesson.

Travelling abroad

If you have been outside of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) in the last 14 days, please let us know immediately. The official advice is constantly evolving, but for the protection of our other customers, children and staff it may be necessary for you to stay at home

Face masks and coverings:

8th August 2020 update: In accordance with the Government Guidance here we are now asking all spectators aged 11 and over to wear a face mask/covering unless you are exempt from doing so. If you are exempt please inform us and to help prevent judgemental looks from others, we recommend you wear an exemption badge like the ones here

‘Rule of 6’:

14th September 2020 update: The UK Government has released new guidance on groups of no more than six people meeting socially.

We can confirm that Typhoon’s lessons, as well as our competitive swim club, are NOT affected by these new restrictions (source)

Our swimming pools are extremely safe well-managed environments. The guidance we adhere to has been developed in conjunction with Public Health England and medical professionals and delivered to us via our regulatory bodies. 

Our activities have been operating under Government-accepted Covid-secure frameworks (aka ‘return to play protocols’) and the UK Government has confirmed these activities are therefore unaffected by the introduction of the ‘rule of 6’.

Location-specific guidance

Typhoon has implemented all industry and government guidance at all of our locations, including introducing one-way systems, clear signage, reducing touchpoints, increasing ventilation, installing hand sanitising stations, implementing social distancing, increasing cleaning, the wearing of PPE and much more.

To make these changes easy to follow and understand, Typhoon has produced specific guidance for each location that we’re open at.

This includes a video induction walkthrough, PDF guide and a full detailed risk assessment which has been independently reviewed. Due to the considerable investment in time and cost in producing these, and the ease with which these documents could be copied, we are not publishing them on our public website, instead, these will be sent to each customer prior to your first session with us.