“We welcome the Government’s decision to prioritise the reopening of gyms as the UK begins to emerge from lockdown.”

“This decision means we plan to reopen our fitness and wellbeing centres in England on 12 April, as well as continuing to deliver the enhanced and unique services we offer, such as face to face emotional wellbeing support and physiotherapy. We will also continue to roll out our COVID-19 Rehabilitation Programme, which is a blend of physical and emotional support designed to help people who are finding it difficult to recover from the long-term effects of COVID-19.

“We can’t wait to welcome back all of our members, and want to reassure them that their safety remains our number one priority. We are proud of the work we’ve done to ensure our fitness and wellbeing centres continue to be safe, including increasing ventilation and sanitation, introducing strict social distancing measures and reducing the number of people who can access our centres at any one time, and the latest data shows that gyms are one of the safest indoor places for people. We will continue to do everything we can to follow Government guidelines and keep our centres COVID-secure.”

Background information:
Ukactive data from July to the end of December 2020 has shown that there were 75 million visits to gyms and leisure centres, with a rate of just 1.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 visits. There were a total of 1,277 COVID-19 cases among gym users, against a backdrop of 2.3 million UK-wide cases in the same time.

Last updated Monday 22 February 2021

First published on Monday 22 February 2021