Phuket Scuba Diving COVID-19
COVID -19, Information, Phuket

Scuba Diving COVID-19 – Health & Advice

Scuba Diving COVID-19 – Health Declaration & Advice

Scuba Diving COVID-19 please read this statement prior to scuba diving. You must complete this additional Medical Statement to enroll in any Phuket Dive Tours scuba diving training program or to participate in any local dive tour day trip. If you are a minor, you must have this Statement signed by your parent or guardian. The information you provide about your medical history should be accurate to the best of you knowledge. You personally agree to accept responsibility for any omissions in disclosing your existing or past health conditions.

The purpose of this scuba diving medical questionnaire is to ensure that you are medically fit to dive.

If you have any existing conditions that could compromise your fitness to dive, you will need to consult with a diving medical specialist. A positive response means that there may be a preexisting condition that may affect your safety while diving. Please answer the following questions truthfully with a YES or NO. If you are not sure, answer YES. If any of these statements apply to you, we must request that you consult with a physician, preferably a Diving Medicine Specialist prior to participating in diving activities.

Within the 40 days immediately preceding the date of this Health Declaration Form, have you: answer Yes / No

  1. TESTED POSITIVE OR PRESUMPTIVELY POSITIVE WITH COVID-19 (THE NEW CORONAVIRUS OR– SARS-COV2) OR BEEN
    IDENTIFIED AS A POTENTIAL CARRIER OF THE CORONAVIRUS?
  2. EXPERIENCED ANY SYMPTOMS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH COVID-19 (FEVER; COUGH; FATIGUE OR MUSCLE PAIN;
    DIFFICULTY BREATHING; SORE THROAT; LUNG INFECTIONS; HEADACHE; LOSS OF TASTE; OR DIARRHEA)?
  3. BEEN IN ANY LOCATION/SITE DECLARED AS HAZARDOUS WITH AND/OR POTENTIALLY INFECTIVE WITH THE NEW
    CORONAVIRUS BY A RECOGNIZED HEALTH OR REGULATORY AUTHORITY?
  4. BEEN IN DIRECT CONTACT WITH OR IN THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY OF ANY PERSON WHO TESTED POSITIVE WITH THE NEW
    CORONAVIRUS OR WHO WAS DIAGNOSED AS POSSIBLY BEING INFECTED BY THE NEW CORONAVIRUS?

You can access the COVID-19 form on the link below

Scuba diving Phuket Covid-19 Additional-Health-Declaration – Phuket Dive Tours

COVID-19 Medical Recommendations

• Divers who have had symptomatic COVID-19, should wait a minimum of TWO months, preferable THREE, before resuming their diving activities.
• Divers who have tested positive with COVID-19 but have remained completely asymptomatic, should wait ONE month before resuming diving.
• Divers who have been hospitalized with pulmonary symptoms related to COVID-19, should, after a three-month waiting period, undergo
complete pulmonary function testing as well as a cardiac evaluation with echocardiography and exercise test (exercise electrocardiography)
to ascertain normal cardiac function prior to your return to diving.

Scuba Diving COVID-19 General recommendations you should consider while on a diving boat

Ensure that physical distancing is respected when on board and avoid taking any unnecessary material on board that is not needed for safety reasons or underwater operations.

Make sure you use hand sanitisers available on board, ensure you follow social distancing rules while the boat is moving its advisable that you and all passengers wear a protective medical face mask.

Do not use buckets to rinse diving masks: rinse them using a shower instead. DIts advised not to use saliva to defog masks: preferably use defogging products do not to touch other people’s equipment.

Make sure you follow distancing rules when divers enter and exit the water, distance on surface may be difficult in the presence of current: use of tag lines or lines secured to a floating buoy, with spacing indicated with tape or colour bands may assist you in maintaining the appropriate distances.

How Buddy checks and air sharing be managed safely

Distancing rules should be respected also in relation to the following operations:
Buddy Checks: divers should be reminded to avoid touching other divers’ equipment, especially those parts that come into close contact with the diver’s face and mouth. A visual buddy check should be carried out, with self-demonstration and verbal confirmation.

Refference

1) Return to Scuba Diving Post COVID-19 – issued by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) in the USA.
2) Diving after COVID-19 pulmonary infection. A position statement of the Belgian Society for Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (SBMHS-BVOOG).