CLEVELAND — Splash! The city of Cleveland has announced plans to reopen its outdoor pools this summer after they were shuttered last year due to COVID-19 concerns.
“We’re going to open all 20 of our outdoor pools on June 12," Michael Cox, Director of Public Works, announced Thursday. "There will be limitations on how many people we can get into the pools based on capacity levels.”
He said the pools will operate Wednesday through Sunday from noon until 7 p.m. They will be open seven days a week if temperatures rise above 85 degrees, Cox said.
“We will operate on a 45-minute session. We will take the center and close it down for 15 minutes of sanitizing and cleaning in between sessions. Then we’ll let another group in for 45 minutes, and we’ll continue that process throughout the day.”
Cox said the city also plans to open playgrounds this summer along with basketball and tennis courts with signage installed to remind everybody to follow proper COVID-19 safety protocols.
"We'll have people riding around to make sure that's happening [following protocols]," Cox said. "If that's not happening, then we'll have to resort to what we need to do to make sure our citizens are safe."
You can read more about those plans in the video below:
City officials also provided an updated on the vaccination process.
“While we have seen a slight increase in vaccine allocations in the city of Cleveland, we know the supply does not meet the demand,” said Brian Kimball, the interim Director of Public Health for the city of Cleveland.
As of March 9, the city of Cleveland and the Department of Public Health has administered 24,696 vaccines. This number includes first and second dose, Kimball said.
He also acknowledged that some Cleveland residents may not have the ability to travel to a vaccination appointment.
“We have created mobile pods or mobile teams in which we can go out in the community and administer vaccines to them," he said.
The press conference comes as the state of Ohio has officially expanded vaccination eligibility to nearly 1.4 million more people who are classified in Phase 1D and 2B effective Thursday. This now includes all Ohioans who are ages 50 and older.
The city is also preparing to open a mass vaccination site next week at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland, which will be open for eight weeks. Officials say it will have the capacity to give 6,000 COVID-19 vaccines.
“Now that the supply of vaccine is significantly increasing, this is the perfect time for a large-scale clinic in Ohio to bolster our work to get shots in arms quickly, efficiently and equitably,” Gov. DeWine said last week.
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