Tomorrow, fitness operators from all over Switzerland will be back in business after almost 4 months! We have all been waiting a long time for this great news and now we can show the entire fitness and health industry how important physical activity is for the population. The relief and, above all, the joy at the easing of restrictions in our industry has been more than palpable among fitness operators since last Wednesday afternoon. We at IG Fitness Switzerland wish everyone lots of energy and every success with the final preparations for the long-awaited restart!
The move to open up came as a surprise and the Federal Council has repeatedly emphasized that they are taking a risk with this decision. However, it also shows the trust that the Federal Council and the FOPH have in our work for health promotion and in the implementation and enforcement of protection concepts.
A “preparatory meeting” was therefore held again last Friday evening with Mr. Honegger from the FDHA, Dr. Salveter from the FOPH and the fitness representatives. The federal authorities made it very clear that they only consider the opening step for the fitness industry to be sustainable if the protection concepts are implemented prudently and consistently. This requires all operators to conscientiously assume their own responsibility.
In plain language and as an important conclusion, this means:
- A renewed “confusion of masks” due to different interpretations of the regulation will not be tolerated. The implementation of the regulation on this point in particular is a key factor for a sustainable opening.
- Accordingly, the inspection authorities have also been informed that compliance with this point in particular must be ensured. Reference was again made to the ordinance and there again to the requirements for protection concepts, section 3.1quater in which the exceptions are described:
For indoor sports activities in accordance with Article 6e(1)(b)(2) without a face mask, the following applies:
- An area of at least 25 square meters must be available for the exclusive use of each person or effective barriers must be installed between the individual persons.
- For a sport that does not involve significant physical exertion and does not involve leaving the allocated space, the minimum area is 15 square meters per person.
- In indoor pools, a water surface area of 25 square meters per person must be available.
- No more than 15 people are allowed in one room.
- The room must have effective ventilation.
What does this mean in concrete terms for the implementation of the operators or for training WITHOUT or WITH a mask?
- If the three-sided spit protection around cardio equipment described in our protection concept is not seamlessly closed and therefore this area cannot be regarded as a separate “room”, training without a mask where the equipment is located will only be possible if a MAXIMUM of 15 people are in the room and the 25m2 (corresponds to a distance of 5m on all sides) is observed!
- So if we assume that equipment areas for endurance training are not necessarily in a single separate room, but only make up one area of a total training area where customers train with masks on other equipment and the number of customers exceeds 15, then masks must also be worn on the endurance equipment!
- For the group fitness room it is clear: If 25m2 per person or 15m2 per person (with no significant physical exertion) cannot be guaranteed, the group course training must take place WITH a mask!
- One of the FOPH’s recommendations is to do cardio outdoors for the time being.
Conclusion and appeal:
- The authorities will rigorously close down facilities that in their opinion do not comply with the ordinance, as we have already been informed in consultation with the cantons in recent days. At the suggestion of the cantons, we have also added the following sentence to the protection concept: IMPORTANT: The protective measures must be strictly adhered to and enforced by the operator.
- If the misconduct piles up, we run the risk of further closures, which is certainly not in the interests of the industry.
For IG Fitness Schweiz, the goal of the entire industry is clear: we do not want another closure! We now have a duty and can demonstrate that the fitness industry can work cooperatively with the authorities. In this way, we can now also prove that we offer safe and preventive training and make our social contribution to overcoming the pandemic.
The IG Fitness Switzerland team!
