The Australian Institute of Sport has closed its Canberra campus to the public in an effort to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission among its athlete population.
Chief Executive of the AIS, Peter Conde said protection of Australian athletes was its priority.
“The AIS campus in Canberra is suspending public activity on the site in an effort to create the safest possible training environment for Australian athletes,” Mr Conde said.
He said the campus’s public-facing facilities would be closed to the community, including the AIS Aquatic and Fitness Centre, the AIS Visitor Centre, public tours, shop, café, the AIS Arena and AIS Track and Field Centre.
He said public events and community sporting camps would also cease.
“Under our remit to lead and enable Australian high-performance sport, we are mobilising and have a duty of care to do everything within our control to provide safe and effective training environments for Australian athletes,” Mr Conde said.
“We don’t underestimate the value of the AIS campus to the community, particularly Canberra’s community, and we have every intention of resuming business as usual when we see it appropriate.”
He said the AIS medical team would continue to screen all users of AIS facilities and monitor health on-site.
“The Australian Sports Commission, including Sport Australia and the AIS, will continue to assess the situation,” Mr Conde said.
“At this stage, it is envisaged the suspension of public activity on site will remain in place until at least 27 April.”
Mr Conde said a public notice would be issued when regular public activity resumed.
The AIS announcement followed the news that this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games had been postponed to 2021.
“There are a number of considerations to work through, however the immediate focus of the AIS is supporting the wellbeing of our high-performance sporting community during this time,” the AIS said in a statement.
