Covid spreading at gyms?

Our gym in San Francisco just opened and I'm eager to get over there. But I'm very curious how it's been going nationwide. Does anyone know of any infections as a result of climbing gyms opening? Or gyms having to shut down? 

It has happened. There was an earlier thread about this, and in the few cases that were discussed it appeared that it was brought into the gym by employees. 

I’ve gone a handful of time to a gym in Salt Lake.

no Covid.

high amount of shit particles found on my hands and feet.

You’re totally good. Go have fun. 

Dan Cookseywrote:

I’ve gone a handful of time to a gym in Salt Lake.

no Covid.

high amount of shit particles found on my hands and feet.

You’re totally good. Go have fun

My gym in Memphis hasn't had an outbreak that I know of and it's been open since June 7th. I go during the day when there's almost nobody there. I don't go during the night when all the cool kids go.

My gym has been open ~3 months and there is has been no outbreak.  Once a climber reported to the gym owners that they tested positive and they let everyone know what days/time that person had been in the gym but as far as we know no one else was infected.

The gym requires mask at all times, takes your temperature at the door, limits the numbers, has alternating climbing "lanes" closed to...

I should also add that this is in south FL where the new cases and positivity numbers for C-19 have been high.

Mark Bwrote:

My gym in Memphis hasn't had an outbreak that I know of and it's been open since June 7th. I go during the day when there's almost nobody there. I don't go during the night when all the cool kids go.

Children, especially cool ones, have been know to transfer more fecal matter than adults. 

There was this thread where someone connected to gym-climbing industry mentioned back in July "her 8th gym closing" because of the COVID cases.

I haven't seen any updates since then. But I can tell you that our University (non-climbing) gym just closed earlier this week, because two students (who tested positive during a random testing that the university is conducting on ~10% of students every week) visited the gym during their presumed-to-be-infectious window.

My understanding that these closures are temporary, both in the climbing and non-climbing gyms, about a week or two in duration, until they do more testing/contact tracing, and cleaning. I am not aware of any gym closing permanently after a positive case was connected to the gym.

I would imagine that if there were 8 gyms back in July, when the gyms had only opened up at the end of may/early June, in places where they HAD opened, then there are more such cases now. But I have personally not encountered one.

I personally have been going to a small gym with mandatory masks, about 3 times a week, and feel safe doing so. Also, happily, our county has seen 7 ( now 8) of consecutive weeks of decline in cases, since the governor orders made mask mandatory in the counties with highest spreads.

Surprised to learn that Planet Granite is up and running again. Wonder if that means Ironworks will be able to follow suit. 

Wonder how PG got permission? An exception, or?

Siriuswrote:

Surprised to learn that Planet Granite is up and running again. Wonder if that means Ironworks will be able to follow suit. 

Wonder how PG got permission? An exception, or?

Check the map with the tiers for the counties.  

https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/

Iron Works is either in Alameda or Contra Costa County, which means that they still cannot open due to the fact that they're in the Purple Tier (Widespread).

Gyms in the South Bay (Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and San Francisco (in SF County) can open due to the fact that they're in the Red Tier (Substantial), as opposed to Purple Tier (Widespread).

Though, at present, it looks like both Contra Costa and Alameda County are making the qualifications for the Red Tier (unless "More than 7" means 7.1 is unacceptable).  Tiers are updated on Tuesdays.

Gyms reopened in Houston back in May or June.  There was one person who tested positive that worked at one gym I go to and that's it.  Thousands of people touching the same holds and ropes and one case total who caught it elsewhere.

If you ask the question "has there been cases of Covid spreading in [insert here some location/event]" the answer is likely to be yes, given the high number of cases in the country and the variety of responses accross states, and the forculness with which any rule is actually enforced or not.

So I do not think asking this question necessarily helps you much to make a decision as to whether or not to go.

Imo a better angle to look at this would be more local. What's the context in your state at this time? Are you spiralling upward or are things somewhat stable? Is it a large city, with a different context than the rest of the state?

My region is currently at ~2 cases /100 000 each day. I live in the biggest city in that region (a bit less than 100 000 perhaps), so even if all the cases were to be in my city, that's still only a few cases a day. I'm therefore not terribly worried that my climbing is going to be a super spreader. So using masks, washing hands & not picking my nose should be fine. It's not a travel hub either, so climbers from out of town aren't terribly common either.

As weird as it may sound, it seems to me that the pandemic might have to be viewed through a local lense at this point.

Gyms have been open a couple months in NJ. I haven't heard of anyone getting covid, but we'd probably never know bc contract tracing isn't working. Everyone wears masks and uses hand sanitizer so it seems reasonably safe.

https://gripped.com/news/climbing-chalk-and-covid-19-infectious-particles-reduced-by-over-99/

Based on how this looks, surface transmission is highly unlikely which is great news.  Chalk for the win! 

Echoing other statements, gyms have been open here in Vegas for over 3 months now and there have been no outbreaks in the gyms here despite having some rapidly rising case numbers in Vegas back in June and July. 

So my work puts me in contact with a lot of doctors in my area. I was talking to one the other day who heads the Lassen county Covid task force. Try saying that without snickering. Anyway, they monitor cases, reporting, prevention efforts etc... So I asked the guy why our county has had 700+ cases but no one has died and this was his response. When you’re tested and it comes back positive, it’s to be counted as one case. You then have to test every three days until you test negative twice. This can result in three to six or more positive results. Each positive result has to be reported. When they are, they’re counted individually as a case of COVID. False positives are also counted. The common cold virus (a corona virus itself) will also result in a positive, and keep showing up as a positive until you recover from it. Out of the 700+ cases, only about 26 were confirmed with those people reporting signs of illness. The rest were false positives, or positives where the host experienced no signs of illness. Of those who did have symptoms, all had significant pre-existing conditions. Most were 85+.  No cases were critical and none died from complications as a result of contacting the virus. Weird!

So i asked if it was reasonable to ditch the mask and go about my life as normal, stores, gyms, the Brazilian steakhouse in Reno? His response; I wouldn’t stop washing my hands, there’s worse things out there to worry about getting than catching the cold. Wasn’t really what I was expecting to hear. 

I've been going a couple of times a week, but I work for myself and can go in when there is almost nobody there.  Masks are mandatory, but I wouldnt go when it was crowded and expect the masks to protect me.