INTERNATIONAL LIFE SAVING FEDERATIONCOVID-19

To: The ILS Patrons
The ILS Founding President, Past-Presidents, Life Governor, Life Members
The President of ILS
The Vice-Presidents of ILS
The Members of the ILS Board of Directors & the Observer to the Board of Directors
The Regional Secretaries
The Member Federations/Organisations: Presidents, Vice-Presidents, SecretaryGenerals, Treasurer Generals, Board Members, Delegates
The Commission Chairs and Members, Committee Chairs and Members
The ILS Grand Knights/Grand Dames, Knights/Dames and Guests
The ILS Partners

Leuven, 19/03/2020
Dear friends,Facts
1.

The world is facing a pandemic situation which affects nearly all countries, including all
ILS Member Organisations.
2. Italy, and especially Northern Italy has recently been heavily affected by Covid-19 with norespite in sight and the region around Riccione is one of the most affected.
3. There is a widespread restriction on International travel and a massive cancellation offlights, and we do not know when that situation will be normalised.
4. There is a lack of available travel insurance. Because Covid-19 is known, no insurancecompany will cover people that become infected in at-risk zones.
5. The social distancing requirements and the decreasing number of people that canconstitute a mass gathering will not allow spectatorship and will therefore reduce or evenremove the world-wide impact of the World Championships.
6. Many national lifesaving championships are cancelled, which results in no possibility toselect teams and to prepare them.
7. Many swimming pools are closed, which affect the training and the preparation of ourcompetitors.
8. The age of many of our technical officials and delegates (35% is older than 60) is high andthis group is identified as the high-risk group.
9. The economic impact of Covid-19 on our National Federations is significant. Many will bein recession as a result of the virus outbreak, particularly our low- and middle-income
Nations.
10. We do not know what the impact of Covid-19 will be in 6-12 months’ time, given it did notexist 4 months ago. It is predicted by scientists that the peak crisis in Europe will be in thespring of 2020 and that the peak crisis in many African, South American and Asia-Pacificcountries will be in the summertime and autumn 2020. It is foreseen that the situation will
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be “normalised” at the start of 2021 if we count a possible re-appearance of Covid-19 insome countries where the disease was passed. It might be possible that medication or avaccine is available in early 2021.
Concerns
The main concern of the ILS is the health and well-being of our members, delegates, technicaland team officials, competitors, volunteers, workforce, spectators, etc.
Crisis Management GroupThe Covid-19 Crisis Management Group was created urgently yesterday to take on the workof a smaller group that was monitoring and managing on a daily basis the Covid-19 issues
since January 2020. The Group is composed of the ILS Chancellery, the Hosts of the LWC
2020 and 2022, the ILS Sport Commission Chair and Secretary, the ILS Executive Director,
the ILS Events Director, the ILS Legal Advisor and the ILS Financial Advisor.
Conclusion
The 2020 Lifesaving World Championships (LWC) will not take place in September 2020 andis postponed to 2021 (or 2022). More details will be provided by the Crisis Management Group
as soon as possible. Cancellation policies will be honoured.
The ILS installed a contact point: please address any questions you have to John Martin MBE,ILS Event Director at j.martin@ilsf.org
We hope that all our members understand the above decision and that you all keep safe.
Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Harald Vervaecke PhD
Secretary General
On behalf of the Crisis Management GroupPage 2