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We are all responsible to keep Covid-19 risks to a minimum and PADI have supported divers worldwide by sharing the following eight simple Covid-19 Risk Reduction Steps for Divers. You can also download a copy of these directly from this page if you want a reminder as you travel and dive with us!

1. Don't go diving if you have or may have symptoms, or have been exposed to any infectious disease. Isolate until healthy and clear according to medical advice.

2. Support the space program. On the surface and out of the water, apply social distancing and give each other the local minimum required separation.

3. Keep your dirty mitts off! This means you must sanitize/wash your hands before and after touching any dive gear (including your own), even if touching was in/underwater. Don't touch someone else's gear unless absolutely necessary.

4. Don't clam up: Medical mask etiquette. My mask helps protect you. Your mask helps protect me. Let's follow local protocols please!

5. Covid-19 hates scuba! Your mask reduces eyes and nose contact-risk, and keeping it on is the best habit whenever you're in the water anyway. Breathing from a regulator reduces your respiration transmission risk too!

6. Be a lean, clean, sanitary machine! Use defog. Disinfect masks, snorkels, regulators and BCDs before another person uses them, and before storing them. Don't sling the... stuff... out of your mask after a dive. Rinse it somewhere appropriately. Avoid spitting/blowing noses etc. into the water where others are. Use tissues and discard them appropriately. Wash/sanitize your hands after touching high contact surfaces like railing, door pulls, safety handles etc.

7. Sharing air is bad. At the surface, diving, divve gear and wind affect the direction and distance our exhalations travel. Stay aware and avoid being on, and having someone on the 'receiving end' when clearing snorkels, breathing hard etc.

8. But sharing air might be really important underwater. So, don't test breathe your alternate second stage. Test purge it during checks, but leave it disinfected in case someone needs it. Or, test breathe it, then redisinfect it.