Residents take the plunge at the Baotou Sports Center, on April 11. [Photo/Baotou Evening News]

The swimming center at the Baotou Sports Center reopened its doors on April 11, marking the first large-scale swimming pool in Baotou -- in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- that is operating as usual, according to a report in the Baotou Evening News.

The first to reopen was the 50×16 meter warm-up pool. Officials said the 50×25 m international standard swimming pool will be reopened to the public starting on April 25.

During the novel coronavirus epidemic prevention and control period, citizens who want to go swimming must make an appointment by phone one day in advance.

When the number of people reaches the upper control limit, swimming center staff will adopt a “one out, one in” method which means a person can only enter the swimming center when another has left the venue.

After making an appointment, residents should register with the electronic health card for Inner Mongolia and take body temperature measurements to enter the venue.

Officials said that between 9-11 am on April 11, 43 adults went to the warm-up pool to swim and there were six children as well. The total number was controlled at 49.

According to the staff, a lot of preparations were carried out before the reopening, including disinfestation, water quality testing and temperature adjustments.

At present, the water temperature of the open warm-up pool is 27C.

Given that residents have not swum for a long time, the water temperature has been appropriately increased by one degree, based on the original 26C temperature.