This week, new research provides a strong reminder that COVID-19 and the gym do not mix very well. Within group fitness classes is actually a very effective way to transmit the coronavirus, according to two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Both studies looked at COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred during the summer of 2020 at fitness facilities in Honolulu and Chicago – including one cycling class where each participant became ill. The outbreak was detected in an investigation by the Hawaii Department of Health. For the investigation, contact detectives and investigators linked 21 cases of COVID-19 to two fitness instructors who offered multiple classes in June and July 2020. They learned while they were contagious, but before they had noticeable symptoms.
One of the instructors taught a 60-minute high-intensity indoor cycling class just four hours before his symptoms began later that evening. The instructor and students were all stationed at least six feet apart, but no one was wearing masks during practice, according to the facility’s protocol, and the windows and doors were closed. The instructor faces the class, ‘shouting instructions and encouragement’, reads the report and presumably spreads contagious respiratory droplets containing the virus. The following week, all ten people who attended the class tested positive for COVID-19.
Of the infected participants, one was also a fitness instructor who would later be admitted to the ICU for a severe case of COVID-19. But before his symptoms started, he offered several classes, unmasked, at another facility – including a personal workout and three small kickboxing classes just 12 hours before his symptoms appeared. Of the 11 people exposed that day (five of whom were also exposed to the instructor two days earlier), ten will test positive for COVID-19 over the next few days. The two students who did wear masks and one of the four instructors’ personal training clients the previous day also tested positive.
Another CDC study looked at cases related to a Chicago gym that had 25% capacity during the last week of August 2020. Of the 81 people who attended high-intensity classes this week (most of whom go to a few), 55 will be diagnosed with COVID-19. Participants took their own mats and weights with them, underwent on-the-spot symptom tests and temperature checks and maintained six feet distance – but they did not have to wear masks while exercising. Out of 58 respondents, 76% said they did not wear their masks regularly. (Perhaps more shocking: 22 participants who would test positive for COVID-19 went to a class on the same day or after the onset of their symptoms – including three who went to class on the same day or after a positive test result. But it is possible that some would have gone to class earlier in the day before noticing symptoms later in the day.)
No report is surprising, of course, given what we know about the spread of COVID-19 and the gym. In both case studies, public health experts found that a combination of poor masking, high respiratory effort, lack of ventilation in an enclosed space, and extensive close contact were the possible factors that allowed transmission. This is all in line with what we already know about the coronavirus, which is spread mainly by respiratory droplets.
The safest way to exercise during this pandemic is at home or outside (alone or alone with the other members of your household). And while the risk of exposure by attending a fitness class with other people will never be zero, as SELF reported, it is possible to make the scenario safer by moving it outward (or otherwise ensuring adequate airflow ) and ensure that everyone uses the correct physical distance. and wear masks.