Cash-strapped Delhi gyms eye respite
NEW DELHI: More than 5,000 gymnasiums, fitness centres and yoga institutes in the city are set to open from Monday after 10 weeks of lockdown with new protocols in place to ensure less than 50% occupancy, distance between clients and adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
“It will be a major relief. Exercise is necessary not only for good physical health but also good mental health. The current times are very stressful. People need to go to the gym after taking all necessary precautions,” said Ashish Tanwar, an engineer and a gym regular.
Arpita Aggarwal, another fitness enthusiast, said, “Yoga helps build good physical and mental health. It is extremely necessary. It is good that gyms and yoga centres can open now. If Covid-19 cases continue to go down, I hope the government allows swimming pools to open as well.” The Delhi Disaster
Management Authority (DDMA) said in a notification on Saturday that gymnasiums and yoga institutes in the national capital can open from Monday.
“Gymnasiums and yoga institutes will be permitted to open with up to 50% capacity. The owners shall be responsible for ensuring strict compliance of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. In case any violation is found, strict action will be taken against the owner, as well as the individual, and the premises will be sealed forthwith,” a DDMA notification, issued on June 26, said.
The state government put in place a lockdown on April 19 in light of an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases. At its peak, on April 20, Delhi recorded more than 28,300 new Covid-19 cases in a day — a number that has now dropped to 89, according to the government’s Covid-19 health bulletin issued on Sunday. The city has added an average of 105 cases each day over the past week, showed data.
While Delhi started implementing a phased relaxation
process from May 31, gyms were allowed to resume operations only on Saturday.
Even during previous year’s lockdown, while the scaling down of restrictions had begun in early-June, gyms and yoga centres – usually seen as a threat in terms of transmission of the virus because of the closed spaces and little room for social distancing – were allowed to resume operations only around mid-September. “Delhi has more than 5,000 gyms, fitness centres and yoga centres. The industry
was under a lot of stress because of the previous lockdown. The latest one was a massive blow. Many of them went out of business in the last few weeks. We hope we manage to recover financially in the coming months,” said Chirag Sethi, vicepresident of Delhi gym association. Vinay Sangwan, owner of Anytime Fitness, a chain of gyms in Delhi-NCR, said: “In the time of the pandemic, people need to stay fit, both physically and mentally, for which gyms and yoga centres are very necessary.”