On Nov. 24, a coalition of Minnesota-based health club company operators issued an open letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his administration calling for reconsideration of the four-week complete closure of gyms and pools in the state. The group urged the governor to reopen health clubs with enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols that the coalition laid out.
The coalition included Life Time, Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness and Rochester Athletic Club.
Club closures are counterproductive to the state's overall public health goals to reduce critical illness, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, the coalition stated in the letter.
The letter noted that state data shows that the rate of positivity at health clubs is 0.003 (747 of 242,000 positive cases), and health clubs “can effectively implement, monitor, and enforce precisely the kind of protocols—6-foot distance except for transient interactions (e.g., check-ins), masks at all times, capacity restrictions—required of businesses that, according to the State, have produced ‘relatively fewer outbreaks,’ such as retail outlets, or are simply permitted to operate with no stated epidemiological rationale, such as weddings (6-foot distance at 50 percent capacity, capped at 250 people).”
Prior to the four-week shutdown order that went into effect on Nov. 20, Minnesota health clubs not only had implemented mask mandates, increased cleaning protocols, conducted temperature checks, implemented reservation systems and installed better ventilation systems, but they also were operating at 25 percent capacity, the letter shared. Despite these precautions, the governor closed gyms while allowing to remain open other businesses that have fewer mitigation measures in place, including retail stores that are open at 100 percent capacity.
The letter states: “With enhanced mitigation measures, including universal masking and increased social distance, there is no epidemiological difference between a health club and an ordinary retail store because masks and social distance are now the standard for reduction of infectious respiration that can lead to transmission. If anything, on close examination, a health club is safer given its capacity restrictions and its higher air exchange rate.”
The coalition requested that clubs be reopened with enhanced protocols that include:
- A mandatory mask requirement at all times while in a gym even during exercise (but not while in a pool or shower)
- Advanced registration requirements, particularly for group fitness classes
- Enhanced social distancing requirements (either reducing overall club capacity from the current 25 percent threshold to 10 to 20 percent, or imposing a per person spacing requirement to a range of 100 square feet per person or 200 square feet per person)
- Partner with the state to push out its new COVIDaware MN exposure app to members and team members or, with appropriate state support and funding, conduct research and/or rapid testing at clubs.
The letter called these steps “an aggressive, more surgical approach that appropriately accounts for the best available public-health evidence, as well as the evident lessons learned about transmission risk mitigation over the last five months.”
The letter also stated: “According to the latest empirical and scientific evidence, Minnesota's health and fitness centers—when bolstered by enhanced mitigation efforts, including a combination of mask wearing even during exercise and increased social distance—can in fact contribute to Minnesota's overall public health and health equity objectives during this pandemic without compromising the important COVID related aims of the Dial Back Order. In contrast to complete closure, the State can meet its main objective to reduce critical illness, hospitalizations, and death from COVID by both enhancing mitigation protocols for health and fitness clubs and permitting clubs to provide important indoor space for exercise during winter in order to help reduce comorbidities that contribute to poor COVID-19 health outcomes, enhance immune systems, and build mental health resiliency for Minnesotans struggling with this crisis. Such a balanced, surgical approach is the sound way for the State to meet its overall public health objectives. As the Governor noted last week, it is "counterintuitive" to close health and fitness clubs amidst a pandemic that more readily spares healthy people from hospitalization. We agree and, with enhanced mitigation protocols for health and fitness facilities, we believe it is also counterproductive to do so.”
Both Life Time and Snap Fitness are based in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Life Time has 23 clubs in the state employing about 6,000 people and serving 120,000 members. Snap Fitness has 98 clubs in the state, and its 74 franchisees employ more than 300 people and serve more than 50,000 members. Anytime Fitness, Woodbury, Minnesota, has 144 locations in Minnesota—most of which are franchised locations—employing more than 800 team members to service more than 197,000 members. The Rochester Athletic Club, Rochester, Minnesota, has one location with 325 employees and 13,000 members.
The full letter, which also details studies that show low transmission rates at health clubs, can be read here.