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Should I skate during the Covid-19 outbreak? The below was originally written on 5th April 2020 and is based on information available at the time of writing. Update: recommendation updated 29th April 2020 The world has been struck by the coronavirus. It is spreading in towns and cities in every corner of the globe and almost no one is left unaffected by it. Almost no single event in living memory has come, so suddenly, and had such a widespread impact –in our billions we are being asked to remain at home. In our search to live under these conditions, people are turning to exercise outdoors, as gyms shut and regular activities become restricted. Is now a good time to inline skate? Should I inline skate during the coronavirus? It depends on the lockdown restrictions within your country. However, if restrictions allow, inline skating is a relatively low risk activity as long as you take precautions, so in most cases it should be fine to skate during coronavirus as long as you do so safely. Disclaimer: we are not the government, we are not medical professionals. You should seek out those sources for advice. Use your common sense. Don’t disobey the advice of medical professionals. If you have any symptoms at all, the advice is to self-isolate. So obviously, if you are showing any symptoms whatsoever, do not go outside and skate. If you also do not feel comfortable skating, or are worried about the risk of injury, then it is probably not advisable to take up skating. A Quick Summary on Whether You Should Skate During the Covid-19 Pandemic Before considering whether to skate, check your local restriction / lockdown rules permit outside exercise. That is your first point of call. If they do, then there are a couple of things to consider: One concern is keeping people away from activities that increase their risk of injury requiring hospitalisation. For many people, skating will be fine. According to some data, around 3 in every 1000 skaters ends up injured enough to go to hospital over a year, so we’re talking relatively small numbers. Essentially, stay away from those types of activities. Inline skating, as long as you know what you’re doing, and particularly if you’re just skating on safe surfaces without traffic, should be absolutely fine, and no more dangerous than cycling. Aside from preventing injury that requires hospitalisation, the chief concern is to avoid being in contact with others not from your household. This means staying at least 2 metres away from other people, certainly not touching, and so if you maintain these principles by staying at a safe distance (and some evidence indicates that 2 metres may not be far enough away, with sneezes travelling up to 8 metres), then you should be fine skating. Based on personal observation, some people are choosing to go out to skate to exercise. It is a good exercise that’s lighter on the knee joints than running, and this is in most cases absolutely safe and fine to do. If you are a complete beginner, you may want to consider indoor exercises like a combination of body moves – search YouTube for plenty of videos. For beginner skaters – as long as they are wearing safety equipment like wrist guards (most common injury to the wrist), a helmet, and knee pads – going along slowly is not very likely to result in a serious injury. The long and the short of it is, it’s probably fine to skate as long as there are no laws where you say you shouldn’t, and you stay 2 metres away from people outside your household. You might want to consider wearing a facemask in case you are asymptomatic, to help reduce the chance of you spreading it, or a N95 mask if you think you’d be around those who have it, not that you should with skating outside. Don’t Do Anything That Raises The Chance of a Hospital Visit The first part of the bolded recommendation above is a fairly strongly worded recommendation. But, it should be noted that skating is safer than a whole bunch of other outdoor activities. According to this data, it is safer than basketball, soccer, cycling and softball, for example, and only slightly more dangerous than tennis. It’s really safe, basically. There’s not much chance of you injuring yourself, but if the quarantine that’s going on is for a matter of weeks, you want to find a way to work out that isn’t going to injure you. Skating could definitely be that, but you wouldn’t want to do anything that you’re too unfamiliar with. You want to do anything to stay out of the hospital at this time. The numbers of patients the hospitals are having to deal with as a consequence of the pandemic, is skyrocketing. This means the space available is running out, or has already run out, new hospitals are having to be set up to offer increased capacity to deal with the numbers being admitted and requiring care. You do not want to go to hospital at this time. Whatever you can do to avoid visiting hospital, make sure you do it. Do not do anything that carries with it unnecessary risks of injury. But, as we’ve said, skating is comparable to cycling in terms of its risks to injury. Jogging also carries the risk of injury that requires hospitalisation as well, n some circumstances. You should probably avoid off-road when jogging, challenging terrain because that too raises the risk of injury. It really depends on what you do. If you decide not to rollerblade but end up running over rough, dangerous terrain instead, then that’s not a good alternative. If you’re skating around on the flat, and you’ve done it a thousand times before, and you’re not attempting any crazy stunts or tricks, it’s probably highly unlikely you’re going to injure yourself so it should be fine. Similarly, young kids who are protected with safety gear, skating around your local area, may actually be better than letting them get near other kids in a team game, for example. Obviously team games are off. But the point is, you don’t want to do anything at the moment that raises the chance of you having to go to hospital, or being near others outside your household. Want to skate inside your house? The question you have to ask is: is there an increased risk of injury that would result in hospitalisation? If there is – say given the things you could slip up on, trip on, or fall into, inside your house (an environment perhaps you don’t usually skate in), then you might want to consider not doing that. Again, on a case by case basis. To Be Fair, Cycling Can Be More Dangerous Than Skating… If you were following this advice to the letter though, it’s worth pointing out that other sports can result in even more hospitalisations. This information here shows that cycling is apparently more dangerous, as reflected in the hospital visit rate per 1000 participants. The rate is 3.4 out of 1000 for inline skating based on this data back in 1999 – so 20 years ago. I do wonder if there’s a difference nowadays however...? I’ve not been able to find any data on it. It Is Still Absolutely Legal To Skate In A Lot Of Places (Not All) You should check your local country’s government guidelines and rules in place regarding lockdowns, or restrictions on outdoor movements. In some locations lockdowns in place are more restrictive, including banning cycling (such as France). In such places skating may be viewed as the same type of activity as cycling and so to be considered a currently banned activity. UK - there are no restrictions on inline skating, in particular. There are restrictions on hanging out with people outside your household, and basically the advice is only go outside to get food, for ‘health reasons’ (which presumably includes exercise; though clearly this terminology is not encouraging excessive outdoor physical activities). You are also told to wash your hands as soon as you get home. See UK government rules here The guidance in the UK, for example, is that you basically shouldn’t go outdoors unless you really need to, and exercise is considered as a ‘need’, so you can probably go outside to exercise by skating. In fact, lots of people in the UK are going outside to skate (based on personal observation). USA – you can skate in most places. It depends on what state you’re in and where you’re located in the US as to what the local advice is, but pretty much rollerblading is allowed everywhere it was before, as of writing. Should I wash my skates because of coronavirus? If you are being super cautious you would consider wiping down your skates with an antiseptic wipe. You would have a shower when you came in from skating and wash all your clothes. Changing into new ones when you came in. You would absolutely wash your hands with soap when you came back in, thoroughly, and all the way up to your wrists. According to the prevailing theories of the spread of this, it is spread in droplets that are passed either through sneezing or coughing, or from touching surfaces that have it. These particulates travel through the air but it is not currently believed that it survives in the air for longer than a couple of hours, and views differ at the moment, but it is thought to last in the air longer in certain conditions such as those found within a laboratory (inside, still air, versus outside with the wind, etc.). If you go out skating there are a few ways that coronavirus could get on your plastic skates, but the likelihood is hard to determine at the moment, but it does not seem to be too high. But given that there is some chance and some unknowns, and a large downside potential (see precautionary principle below), we could do well to consider washing our skates if we touch them with our hands, and washing our hands afterwards as well. It could get on your skates in the following ways: Someone could spit, sneeze, or cough near you and droplets could land on the skate Someone could touch your skates who has the virus A piece of material could touch your skates and transfer it. It could be leftover in the air (according to current evidence, much less likely, especially outdoors) How long would Covid-19 last on my skates? Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Montana have studied how long the COVID-19 virus can survive on plastic, steel and cardboard: Their analysis revealed that the virus can survive for up to four hours on copper and up to 24 hours on cardboard, but can survive for the longest time on plastic and stainless steel, surviving for up to three days. Other studies have found that it can last up to 9 days on harder surfaces such as plastic. Source It depends how much of the virus there is, as the virus has a half-life of sorts where it will reduce in size over a certain amount of time. Therefore if there is a lot of virus that has found its way onto your skates you will need to wash it with antiseptic wipes to be extra safe. Such considerations to be weighed up next to the general availability of wipes for other, more important uses, of course. What about washing clothes after skating? As an added precaution when you leave the house and go somewhere the virus is likely to be, you could consider washing your clothes when you return home. The UK Government website has this to say on washing clothes: If the items you are washing are likely to cause illness (high risk), they should be washed at 60C with a bleach-based product. Items are likely to cause illness if you have someone in your home who has an infectious illness. Should I wear a mask when skating outdoors during the Covid-19 outbreak? If this doesn’t impede your ability to skate safely in any way it is probably a good idea to wear a mask if you already have a suitable one. This is just because if you do have the virus and you sneeze or cough, it is less likely to pass onto others. There is also a very small chance that this mask will reduce the chance of you breathing in the virus, but most masks are not designed in a way to prevent the breathing in of the virus (but rather to prevent breathing it onto others), and it is not clear the extent to which the virus is airborne – most scientist at the moment are not placing emphasis as this being something to worry about when being outside alone, as far as the available data show at this time (05/04/2020) Only masks that pass specific tests, such as the N95 respirator, are effective at preventing virus particles from entering the airways – these mask are designed with several layers and must pass certain standards to ensure they meet the requirements. Most masks you see on the street are not this type of mask – the surgical looking masks are not this type of mask. However, as masks do reduce the chance of you passing on the virus – masks should in general (and where they do not impede the medical professional’s ability to get masks) be worn. Will I get coronavirus from the air when I’m out skating? According to the research published so far, and general medical opinion, coronavirus is not likely to linger in the air for longer than a few hours, longer under the right conditions (such as laboratory conditions, like still air) – there are chances that the virus in an inside environment might last in the air, but at the moment scientists are unsure how long and the extent of this. Some scientists believe it can There are some reasons to believe it may be in the air under some conditions The virus, for example, definitely travels through the air. As this article here helps to explain It travels through the air when people sneeze and cough, in droplets. Which may be the main way people get the virus (or through contacting it on their hands and then touching their face, eyes, nose, and especially mouth). It is physically possible that out when skating someone may sneeze in your direction, perhaps if they are close to you, and you could receive droplets on your face. However, if someone sneezes over the other side of a park this isn’t going to affect you directly. In wide open spaces where the wind currents are taking particles away the virus is presumably less likely to linger in the air. In fact, from this view, being out in open spaces, with some people who are breathing the virus, but being far enough away from these other people, may be better than being in an indoors environment where the virus is present such as in a supermarket. For some people, skating is a good idea to keep healthy during coronavirus For your mental wellbeing, and general fitness, skating can be better than some other activities during coronavirus. It is better than all team sports, for example. Team sports should not be engaged in at all. If you are confident of your abilities, or simply skating around where there is no other traffic, then skating should be fine. Should children skate during the Covid-19 pandemic? This is not an easy question to answer. The answer is “they will probably be fine” as long as they are skating around with their parents in a safe environment – where they have the proper helmet, knee pads and wrist guards – to prevent injuries. You should keep distant from other people who are outside of your household. The number of children who get injured and have to visit hospital from skating is going to be comparable to the number who do cycling… This should give you some indication. However, if you judge that there is an increased risk of injury from this activity versus an alternative that does the same job – then choose the other activity that reduces the chance of your kid become injured. Your kids should not be skating with other kids who are not in your household. Your kids should not be aggressive skating or other types of skating that raises the chance of them injuring themselves and having go to hospital. Depending on where you are in the world, parks, outdoor gyms (and by extension skate parks) are closed. So kids – if they skate in skate parks near other kids – should almost certainly not be skating in those locations. What is the precautionary principle and why does it matter? The precautionary principle is one way of dealing with issues of potential harm that affect us when our state of knowledge is not particularly solid. When we don’t have a good sound, scientific basis to base our judgment of what to do on, we can turn to this strategy. It broadly states that when approaching a new area, where the ramifications and risks have not been properly quantified, studied or generally understood, that we should err on the side of caution. The precautionary principle is simply a strategy, and it is not always a good one... But in the case of coronavirus it may make us ask: how should we behave if the virus is extremely contagious, and extremely dangerous to us and others? If we assume it is quite dangerous, we can still continue to enjoy our lives and take joy in them, but will need to consider implementing certain habits into our daily routines to help us mitigate the risks of transmission. In the case of coronavirus it might lead us to think about the following: reducing (or eliminating) our contact with others reducing our chances of hospitalisation through injury (or other illness) reducing the chance we can breathe in or out particles of the virus reducing the chance we touch surfaces that may have it (so in this case, washing equipment) reducing the number of occasions we enter areas the virus is or has been (such as trips to supermarkets or shops, in general) acting to remove the virus from our body when we have been in areas that may have the virus: so washing our hands or showering after being in these locations acting to separate clothes and materials that we take with us outside that have been in these locations - which may mean taking clothes off to wash them, or storing equipment separately You should absolutely not be doing new stunts and tricks at this time. Now, it depends of course what we mean by ‘stunts and tricks’ – some very basic moves if they pose little risk and you’ve practiced them so often they’re as natural as skating to you; then these are probably fine. But you should definitely not really be trying anything new, anything that involves the risk of falling or injury in any way. Even if you consider yourself invincible, hardy, and a skating-genius, you just shouldn’t because it’s pretty selfish. If it raises the likelihood, even by a few percentage points, that you’ll end up putting additional strain on hospital staff by having to pay them a visit, then you are basically making this situation worse. Where can I skate? Look in your country for what the rules say. Going to parks? In the UK, communal places within parks such as sports courts, playgrounds and outdoor gyms have been closed to help ensure social distancing measures are stuck to. But you can still go to the park for outdoor exercise once a day but only alone or with members of your household, not in groups. However, in Spain the advice is not to leave the house at all, unless you must go to the shop (or you have a dog to walk).