Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Further Hamilton City Council closures and service reductions

Hamilton's Waterworld will be running a reduced schedule from this weekend. Gallagher Aquatic Centre was closed from February 21 because of staff being Covid positive. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton City Council is further reducing opening hours at some of its facilities and reducing some services because of a continued increase of Omicron cases and household isolations reducing staff numbers.

The impact of Omicron this week is being felt by Hamilton's pools and more libraries.

Last week the council dropped the collection of food scraps bins in its weekly recycling service, Households were advised to take food scraps bins to empty for free at the Lincoln Street transfer station, freeze them for now, home compost them or dispose of them in their red rubbish bins.

Today the council announced that due to further staff shortages, the St Andrews library will be closed from Saturday March 12, while Waterworld will be working on reduced hours and services, also from Saturday.

"Our team gets sick too and Omicron is so fast, things for us are literally changing overnight," said Hamilton City Council's General Manager Community, Helen Paki.

Hamilton City Libraries:

In addition to the Central City Library, the St Andrews Library will be closed while Hamilton's four busiest community libraries – Chartwell, Hillcrest, Glenview and Dinsdale – will remain open, providing an open library within 10 minutes' drive from anywhere in Hamilton.

The Central City Library and the St Andrews Library are closed because of Omicron related staff shortages. Photo / Supplied

To make sure the community can still get the books they're after, the council is waiving hold fees (usually $1.50) until all the libraries are open again. Contactless returns, through the return chute, are still available at all libraries.

Waterworld:

With many staff now isolating, Waterworld will be running a reduced schedule from this weekend. While some pools may be closed and hours reduced, all Learn to Swim classes will continue as planned.

"It is important to us to continue to provide Hamiltonians with the opportunity to learn how to be safe in the water, especially while the last higher temperatures of summer are still around," Paki says. "Therefore, our Learn to Swim classes will be unaffected and going ahead as normal."

The reduced hours and services mean that the hydroslide and the outdoor Lido pool are now closed. Alongside this, the new reduced hours for Waterworld are:

• March 12 to 13: open from 7.30am – 12pm.
• March 14 to 18: open from 5.30am – 6.30pm. Services reduced as follows:
• Hydrotherapy and 25m pools open from 8am – 3pm
• 50m and dive pools open from 5.30am – 8am, and 3pm – 6.30pm (closed between 8am and 3pm)

"A third of our Hamilton Pools staff is currently positive or isolating as a result of a household contact and we simply no longer have enough staff to keep Waterworld open at our regular hours." Paki says.