The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Gym and fitness centre proprietors yesterday argued they should be allowed to reopen on the basis that the industry represents no greater COVID-19 risk than the food stores.

Sofia Whitehead, owner of Club One Fitness, told Tribune Business: "I think that there should be a plan, number one, rather than just shut down. There should just be a plan, have everyone calm down and then we can work with that. Just being closed, I am not sure about.

"We should be able to schedule personal training sessions one-on-one, and we should be able to have a limited amount of people going in, even if it is only 20 percent occupancy. It really shouldn't be completely shut down. Businesses are suffering, and also we have huge gyms with huge capacities. People are at greater risk of contracting the virus in the supermarkets than they would in our gyms if they are spread out."

Ms Whitehead added: "It's not even just business that's suffering. People are dying to work-out. It's not even us, but we have a bunch of athletes that are getting weak because they can't work out.

"Everything is completely vague. I have spoken to the attorney general [Carl Bethel QC] and they said 'no, no opening for anything', but at the same time I don't know where these professional athletes are supposed to be working-out.

"I wish that they [the government] would think of a plan and be a bit more specific about the plan. That would be a bit better. At least a bit of a timeline, even if it's just letting one person in at a time, but at least it would be something."

Speaking about the impact on her business, Ms Whitehead said: "We have a 12,000 square foot facility that has been empty for the last seven weeks. So I don't understand why, in the supermarket, you have hundreds of people accumulating at once, and when you go to BTC everyone is standing in line, but then at the gym you can't have ten people.

"I understand why people may be concerned about people breathing heavily and their sweat being all over the place and other bodily fluids, but if there is so much space and everything is disinfected then I don't see a problem. I don't see any difference with holding a shopping cart and holding a set of weights."

Ms Whitehead added that the COVID-19 lockdown will not stop Club One from reopening, and said the business has kept in touch with clients by offering complementary classes twice a day at 9am and 6pm over the last six weeks via Instagram for members and non-members. This will continue until the company and wider fitness industry is permitted to reopen.

Dr Kent Bazard, general manager of Empire Fitness, said: "As business owners we are all going through a difficult time. Of course we want to get back to business as soon as possible. But we have to trust the government's decision, assuming they are making well-informed determinations and decisions on what they should do.

"Looking at what's being done with our neighbours next door, for example, Texas, Florida and Georgia, their fitness centres are open and operating using social distancing, and the big issue is the cleaning up of the equipment.

"I hope within the next phase we can open even if we have some restrictions on how many persons we let in. I don't think we need to wait until Phase five, but maybe we should be allowed to open at Phase two or three."

Dr Bazard said fitness centres have always practiced sanitary measures, and his members have to use towels. "Once persons are wearing masks and practicing the social distancing, we don't have to wait that far until Phase 5 to reopen," he added.

Dr Bazard said COVID-19 risks can be minimised with basic social distancing, and added: "People are not just exercising for fun; a lot of people are exercising for their health. So that is something we really should consider that people need to get back to their health.

"What we actually did was that we made ourselves available for professional athletes because Phase 1B has allowed for professional athletes to resume training. So we started a scheduled to allow professional athletes only to resume training during this period. Small group training and personal training is also something they should look at allowing to resume."