Mixed response as gyms reopen after seven months

Nagpur, Oct 27

As gyms and fitness centres in the Orange City reopened on Sunday after remaining shut for over seven months due to the extended Covid-induced lockdown, the response on the first two was mixed due to various reasons.It seems that people are still reluctant to join the gyms due to virus infection scare.

The gym owners have already faced heavy financial losses due to closure of gyms and to add to their worries, since the unlock process started, the gyms were given last priority to re-open. It forced the gym owners to launch an agitation. Even to attract the attention of the State government towards the demands of gym owners city mayor Sandip Joshi joined them and staged a demonstration at RBI square in August. Finally the state government issued the notification about the re-opening of the gums from October 25. Talking to Lokmat Times one of the gym owners at Friends Coloney Yogesh Dhanorkar said, “People are gradually rejoining the gyms. We have divided them in some batches and only 15 to 20 persons are allowed in each batch. We are following the SOPs released by the government and taking extra care of the hygiene. We frequently sanitizes all our equipment because in future people will prefer such gyms which take care of cleanliness and hygiene”, he said.

Dhanorkar also said since this is the month end people are not in a mood to rejoin the gyms. “ Hopefully from November 1 more and more people will come”, he said.

However, another gym owner of Mankapur Javed expressed disappointment over people’s response. “The response has been tepid on first two days of reopening of our gym due to coronavirus scare and strict guidelines, which allows only limited number of members to work out at a time. Secondly there is talk about second wave of virus in the country. Therefore people are taking extra care.” Javed said he has installed all the necessary equipment in his gym already like thermal scanners and sanitiser dispensers. Those coming to the gym would be sanitised and screened for ever. Social distancing at gym is a big concern and efforts have been taken to ensure it is practiced," he said. Meanwhile, other prominent gym owners have not opened their gyms yet. Some of them are likely to re-open gyms from November 1.