Many gyms in the city are conducting online demo sessions to tell their patrons about the safety measures in place before opening on 6 August. The Centre has declared gyms, which are closed since March end, can open during unlock 3.0 phase from 5 August but the biweekly lockdown falling on that date in West Bengal, many gyms have decided to function from August six while others have preferred to wait a little more.
The safety measures by the gyms include a self- declaration form by patrons that they have not been infected by Covid-19 virus.
Core Gym’s Tuhin Bhattacharya said on Tuesday that “self declaration form will have to be signed by each member which will be renewed every 15 days to know whether he/she have been exposed to Covid infected people.” This will be in addition to all the trainers and non- training staff wearing face masks all the time and keeping a minimum of 6 feet distance with members during workout.
There can’t be any touching the members for support by the trainers during workout, Bhattacharya said.
A limited number of people will be allowed to workout and divided into separate slots of 1 hour each, he said.
Neeraj Surana of Rush Gym will, however, said he will wait for a few more days, preferably my mid-August to open his facility but only one floor for workouts. “We had to pay electricity charges, salaries, and some other miscellaneous expenses like marketing, etc,” he added.