Medical statement / Covid-19
Read carefully before signing. You are required to complete this additional medical declaration to participate in a sports training program (freediving/sailing/spearfishing). If you are a minor, you must have a parent or guardian sign this declaration.
Pay attention
COVID-19 shares many of the symptoms of other severe viral pneumonias, which require a period of convalescence before returning to normal activities – a process that can take weeks or months depending on the severity of the symptoms (1).
MEDICAL RECOMMENDATIONS (2):
- Freedivers and spearfishers who have been affected by symptomatic COVID-19 should wait a minimum of TWO months, preferably THREE, before resuming activity.
- Freedivers and spearfishers who have tested positive for COVID-19, but have remained completely asymptomatic, should wait at least ONE month before resuming diving.
- Freedivers and spearfishers who have been admitted with pulmonary symptoms related to COVID-19 should, after a waiting period of three months, undergo a complete pulmonary function test and cardiac evaluation with echocardiography and exercise testing (exercise electrocardiography) to ascertain normal cardiac function before returning to diving.
REFERENCES
(1) Return to Diving Post COVID-19 – published by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) in the USA.
(2) Diving after COVID-19 pulmonary infection. The position of the Belgian Society for Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (SBMHS-BVOOG).