Adults cannot be in the gyms, but those under 18 years old can. Walking on the TCC track is permitted, but running is prohibited. In the meantime, basketball games can continue on the adjacent courts.
More questions are being raised about a public health order closing fitness facilities in British Columbia, including why it’s safe for young people to lift weights but not for adults.
In Kamloops, gyms at the city-owned Tournament Capital Center and Westsyde Pool and Fitness Center continue to operate, but are only open to 15- to 18-year-olds.
City recreation supervisor Linda Stride said the public health order applies only to adults, which is why those gym facilities remain open to youth, under the age of 18. For city gyms, paying adults must accompany 12-14 year olds. Because adults are not allowed in gyms, per the public health order, city gyms are now restricted to ages 15-18.
Other gyms can also open to those under 19, but many, including the Kamloops YMCA-YWCA, have simply closed while the order remains in effect.
However, the hot tubs, steam rooms and saunas at TCC, Westsyde and Y remain open.
The Health Ministry confirmed that exercise and fitness programs for youth are allowed under the order. He said in a statement to KTW that “regular physical activity for children and youth is important for healthy growth and development, including mental health, bone health and cardiorespiratory fitness.”
Gym owners in Kamloops have used a similar argument, asking the province to consider them an essential service. A handful of local gyms have defied public health orders, staying open and receiving fines.
Stride said the city is already staffing the TCC Field House and athletics, noting that no additional staff is being used to open the gym for those who can use it, ages 15 to 18.
Stride said the indoor track has remained open for people to walk, but running is prohibited. Indoor sports like basketball, which includes running, continue at the center of the court for people of all ages. However, gym classes have been cancelled.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that sports have been allowed to continue because they generally bring together the same group of people, containing the spread of COVID-19 within a defined group of people, if someone who participates is infected.
“On the other hand, fitness and exercise facilities typically bring together many different people on an ongoing basis, who would not normally interact, which can result in many unconnected people becoming potentially infected, who can then further spread the virus to others. your contacts.” says the government statement.
However, the owner of a Kamloops gym that remains open has said his facility has not been a source of transmission. Justin Grover, co-owner of No Limits Fitness, pointed to the lack of statistics provided by health officials in deciding to close gyms in BC
KTW has twice requested the numbers on which the decision to close the gyms was based and to date has not been provided those statistics.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said its decisions are guided by “science, prudence and care and our commitment to stop the spread of COVID.” He pointed to three scientific papers in support of his decision:
• COVID-19 outbreak at a gym in Saskatchewan (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/canada-communicable-disease-report-ccdr/monthly-issue/2021-47/issue-11-november-2021/outbreak- covid-19-fitness-centre-saskatchewan-lessons-prevention.html), published by the Public Health Agency of Canada in November 2021;
• COVID-19 Outbreak Among Gym Attendees – Chicago Illinois, August-September 2020 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7948936/), published by the US National Library of Medicine’s National Institutes of Health on March 5, 2021;
• Epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak in gyms in Cheonan, Korea (https://synapse.koreamed.org/articles/1146132?viewtype=pubreader), published on August 5, 2020 in the Journal of Korean Medical Science.
The government statement also referred to comments made by Dr. Bonnie Henry, a provincial health officer, at a COVID-19 press conference on January 4, in which she was quoted as saying, “I can’t tell you all the cases that have been linked to a gym, but we can tell you that we’ve seen this as a pattern, that these are settings that are at higher risk and when there’s a lot of transmission in the community, particularly in that age group, so the demographic age that goes to gyms that is very connected, so there are younger people who are also more social or working, have children.
“We know that these transmission links are happening and spreading to higher risk environments. These gyms are doing everything right in many cases, but the reputable ones understand that they are not going to put their staff and patrons at risk when we are seeing the amount of transmission that we are seeing right now.”
