Auckland Council has made the difficult decision to temporarily close its network of libraries, pools and leisure centres for the next two weeks in line with Government recommendations to constrain the spread of COVID-19.
The council is also reviewing its wider network of community facilities, including community centres, community art galleries and venues for hire to ensure that from Monday 23 March these facilities only support classes, activities, programmes and events that allow for social distancing within government guidelines.
In addition, Regional Facilities Auckland is closing the Auckland Art Gallery and Maritime Museum.
These closures are effective from the close of business today. They will be for a period of two weeks initially, extended as required depending on the evolving situation with COVID-19 and the advice of Government.
Following further Government advice that indoor gatherings of 100 or more people should be cancelled the council’s top priority is to protect the health and wellbeing of Aucklanders and of our staff who use its facilities.
Given, the nature of how our libraries and pools and leisure centres operate, it has become increasingly difficult for us to maintain an environment for safe social distancing and hygiene, despite our best efforts, which poses an undue risk to our customers and staff.
Our facilities are often communal areas with close contact between people, where equipment and technology are shared. We also cannot identify who our customers are, so contact tracing people would be very difficult.
No staff jobs will be adversely affected. We will work with staff affected by these changes over the coming days.
We will also work closely with our stakeholders about what this means for them and how we can support them through the next fortnight.
We have not made this decision lightly. We understand that these facilities are an important part of community life for many Aucklanders.
However, we are dealing with an unprecedented health crisis and have thoroughly assessed the situation and the risks of these facilities remaining open. At this time we believe temporary closures are in the best interests of the health and safety of our staff, customers and all Aucklanders.
The temporary closures – for review in 14 days
All Auckland Libraries
Pools and leisure centres – except the early childhood education centres and out of school care (OSCAR) programmes. There remain available and we will continue to follow Ministry of Education guidance when it comes to educational facilities.
The Auckland Art Gallery and Maritime Museum
I will update more when further information comes to hand
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