MUSSELBURGH Sports Centre will close later this week due to staff shortages after a member of staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Operator enjoyleisure, which oversees the running of sports centres across East Lothian, said several members of staff had been asked by NHS Test and Protect to self-isolate after some contact with a colleague who had tested positive for coronavirus.

Bill Axon, enjoyleisure chief executive, said: “enjoyleisure took immediate action to assist NHS Test and Protect in identifying all colleagues who had potentially been a close contact. 

“Once identified, enjoy instructed these colleagues to stay at home and self-isolate without delay. These co-workers are now self-isolating for 10 days as required.”

The pool at the centre is currently closed until Friday for planned maintenance works but the centre itself is having its normal operating hours reduced.

Today (Tuesday) it was open until 4.30pm and tomorrow from 7am until 3pm.

The centre will be closed on Thursday and Friday with hopes it will reopen at 9am on Saturday.

SEE MORE: Musselburgh and North Berwick swimming pools to close again while maintenance work is completed

Mr Axon added: “While every effort has been made to find appropriate cover, we have been unable to fill all of the necessary shifts to maintain full operations across all of our facilities. 

“Our priority is always to provide a consistently high level of service to our customers, whilst upholding all necessary safety and security standards.

“In order for us to achieve this, for this week, we are prioritising our staffing resource to retain as many public services as possible.

“Musselburgh Sports Centre’s swimming pool is currently closed this week for the concluding maintenance works.

“We have subsequently taken the decision to reduce the dry-side operational hours at this centre, in order to maintain staffing levels at other facilities.

“We fully appreciate this will be come as a disappointment to our customers and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.

“We can only express regret that in these demanding times, this decision was required.
“The safety of our colleagues and our customers remains our number one priority.

“enjoyleisure has strict protocols in place throughout all our facilities, these are in place to protect both staff and all others from and is a critical path in making and keeping our facilities ‘Covid-secure’. 

“Having consulted other agencies, we can verify our facilities remain a safe place for work and every category of public visit.”