Covid treatment: Chlorinated pool water helps inactivate COVID-19 in under 30 seconds

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Indoor swimming pools in England have been given the green light to reopen to the public and with studies indicating swimming pools can be safe and secure environments even with a COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a double celebration. How can chlorinated pools help with COVID-19?

Virologists from Imperial College London found that chlorinated swimming pool water helps to inactivate the virus which causes COVID-19 in little under 30 seconds.

The findings suggest that the risk of COVID-19 transmission via swimming pool water is “incredibly low”.

As indoor swimming pools across the country reopened on Monday, April 12 as part of the Government’s roadmap to ease lockdown restrictions, Swim England chief executive Jane Nickerson hailed the results as “fantastic news”.

The World Health Organisation has also spoken about using chlorine and said coronavirus can be “sensitive” to the chemical.

It said: “Conventional, centralised water treatment methods that utilise filtration and disinfection should inactivate the Covid-19 virus.

“Other human coronaviruses have been shown to be sensitive to chlorination and disinfection with ultraviolet (UV) light.”

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When the proper amount of chlorine is added to pool water, it kills germs, including viruses, said Hackensack Meridian Health.

The site continued: “The amount of chlorine in the water needs to be properly maintained in order for its disinfectant qualities to be effective.

“This is why lifeguards and pool managers test chlorine and pH levels throughout the day and make adjustments as needed.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that when swimming pools are properly maintained, the chlorine in the water should “inactivate” coronavirus, which would prevent the virus from spreading.

This makes sense, because there’s no evidence that coronavirus spreads to people through the water in pools, according to the CDC.

The research established that 1.5mg per litre of free chlorine with a pH between 7-7.2 reduced the infectivity of the virus by more than 1000-fold within 30 seconds.

Additional testing of different free chlorine and pH ranges confirmed that chlorine in swimming pool water was more effective with a lower pH which is in line with current guidance for swimming pool operation.

Professor Wendy Barclay, Imperial College, said: “We performed these experiments at our high containment laboratories in London.

“Under these safe conditions, we are able to measure the ability of the virus to infect cells, which is the first step in its transmission.

“By mixing the virus with swimming pool water that was delivered to us by the Water Babies team, we could show that the virus does not survive in swimming pool water: it was no longer infectious.

“That, coupled with the huge dilution factor of virus that might find its way into a swimming pool from an infected person, suggests the chance of contracting Covid-19 from swimming pool water is negligible.”

Paul Thompson, founder of Water Babies, said: “We are excited about these findings as we prepare to restart our classes and plan to welcome back families, littles ones and customers to indoor swimming pools across the country.

“It has been fantastic to work closely with Professor Barclay and her team at Imperial College and collaborate with leading bodies Swim England and RLSS UK on this world-leading research.

“We know swimming has multiple benefits for physical and mental health for both children and adults of all ages and we’re looking forward to our lessons restarting.”

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