Professor Salim Abdool Karim believes there is no reason why gyms and fitness studios should not be allowed to open safely during South Africa’s national lockdown.
But Karim, the chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group, says all gyms and fitness studios would need to follow strict protocols consistently in order to operate safely.
“Gyms need to take extra precautions before they can open. Those protocols have been developed,” Karim told the Saturday Star this week.
“I've seen a draft doing the rounds and I think – if the appropriate precautions are taken in terms of ensuring social distancing, there is enough space, and they only take small numbers of people at a time – there should be no reason why gyms shouldn’t be able to open up safely.”
Karim was responding to calls from the fitness industry, who have urged government to open up gyms across the country.
The fitness industry is on the verge of collapse, as gyms across the country continue to remain shut under lockdown. It is expected that around 80% of gyms are likely to shut down permanently, with massive job losses.
“There are multiple different risks here and principally they revolve around the difficulty in using masks when you're engaging in various exercises. The absence of masks places a particularly high risk in a gym situation.”
Karim added that exercise was particularly important to boost the immune system. “Generally, exercise is good for health, but the extent to which it will positively impact on this pandemic – I doubt there will be much benefit. The pandemic moves so rapidly that anybody attempting to get fit at this stage is not likely to benefit much.
“We're in a situation where the conditions we're having to adapt to in terms of the new normal force us to minimise our movement and only make essential trips. We have to be careful that this doesn’t increase – in the long term – our risks of having chronic diseases and non-communicable disease, but that's a very long-term perspective. It’s not something that’s going to happen in the next year or two.”
While Karim approves of the opening of gyms during lockdown under strict conditions, he says gyms still remain on the list of places of high risk of transmission.
“There are higher risks than gyms, but gyms are right up there. Other things on that list are spectators at a sporting event, and religious and other gatherings.”
FitSA, the association of health and fitness clubs in the country, say they have held positive talks with the government and hope to be given the green light for gyms to open in the next few weeks.
“We're very positive as we had a productive online meeting with high ranking officials from the Department of Sport, where we expressed grave concerns about the impact of lockdown in terms of job losses, long-term negative effects and growth of the fitness industry, and also, with the Olympics around the corner, our country’s athletes have nowhere to train,” said spokesperson Grant Austin .
“The smaller independent gyms and studios that FitSA is representing account for more than 24 000 of the jobs. That’s over 80 percent%.”
Austin added that the lockdown had decimated the fitness industry, and that a reopening is greatly needed.
“It’s been five months of no work, so what was a vibrant, robust industry has been decimated (by fear of infection). Multiple studies have been done around the world showing this is not the case. One study in Oslo tracked over 1 800 gym members and had zero infections from them using their gyms.”
Austin added that the fitness industry has developed a 29-page set of safety protocols, with a panel of occupational hygienists, to make sure they are ready for the reopening of gyms.
“The protocols are better than any other industry already opened. It deals with staff training, pre-screening of members with any contra-indicators/comorbidities, social distancing, sanitising and ensuring good natural ventilation.”
Meanwhile, Planet Fitness say they are all ready to open and have the correct safety protocols in place. “We are ready to open,” said Gillian Elson, spokesperson for Planet Fitness. “It has been proven that exercise builds the immune system and that gyms do not pose an additional risk to the threat of of Covid-19. We have been working hard during lockdown to ensure that we are ready to open.”
Elson says they are hopeful of opening soon, having had positive discussions with the government.
“Various submissions have been made to the government. We signed a mandate, together with the independent operators, and have started seeing some progress on the matter. We are aware the president is possibly going to lower the country to level 2 and we hope to be included in that announcement,” Elson said.