KUCHING: The Fitness Industry Association of Sarawak, a collective of commercial gymnasium and fitness studio operators throughout Sarawak, has urged the government to prioritise the reopening of the fitness sector for fully vaccinated customers.
Owner of Plumeria Fitness and Beauty Studio in Bintulu, Mariah Nawawi said she was thankful to the Sarawak government for the high vaccination rates, and despite the spread of Covid-19 Delta variant, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and fatality rates had continued to fall.
With such a high vaccination and recovery rate, Mariah felt that the time was right to put the livelihood of fitness operators, as well as the physical and mental health of Sarawakians, back into focus.
Meanwhile, Level Up Fitness founder and director Kenny Sia recognised that some parties still mistakenly believe that exercising at gymnasiums or fitness studios was high risk.
“That cannot be further from the truth. Many fitness operators have already implemented very tight supervision and standard operating procedures (SOPs) since the beginning.
“As a result, there is no virus transmissions that can be linked to gymnasiums, yoga or Zumba studios in Sarawak since 18 months ago.”
Kok Yung Kai of Speed Fitness Miri said that like many business premises such as offices, eateries and supermarkets, the fitness sector too had their share of asymptomatic customers.
“Nonetheless we are proud to say that our tight SOPs, our diligent contact-tracing and immediate closure have prevented any close or casual contacts from being infected as well. This shows that our SOPs work.
“And with all our staff now fully vaccinated and by admitting only vaccinated customers, we are confident these SOPs will continue to work if we are allowed to reopen.”
Leonard Leong of Core Reactor Studio in Miri said fitness was an industry that had thousands of employees, including trainers, coaches, hospitality staff, receptionists and cleaners.
“All these employees rely on the fitness industry to make an honest living in order to put food on the table and send their children to school.
“We have suffered for much of the pandemic, and we humbly ask the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee to consider the livelihoods of those in the industry.”
