Ocean City Beach Patrol adjusting amidst COVID-19

OCEAN CITY, Md. – Ocean City’s Beach Patrol says they’re prepared to put guards in the stand starting Memorial Day weekend but they’re tweaking a few things in order to air on the side of caution.

Captain Butch Arbin says COVID-19 hasn’t impacted staffing and they’ll have the same amount of lifeguards as Memorial Day weekend last year. They’ve changed the way they “check guards in” for training and drug testing. Usually there’s a large crowd associated with that but they’re now creating appointments in order to limit the number of beach patrol employees at those events.

They’re also adding N95 masks to the equipment that guards will have in addition to the usual eye protection, gloves and CPR mask. Guards will also have access to additional PPE that they can put on if needed, if they are in a situation where they need to wait for paramedics to arrive.

Beach Patrol will still host their outdoor prayer service on the boardwalk on Saturday, May 23rd with proper social distancing because Captain Butch Arbin says that’s “needed now more than ever”.