When gyms reopen in Wyoming on May 1, exercise and leave.
That’s the basic advice given by State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist and Governor Mark Gordon during a live briefing on Wednesday afternoon.
Gyms, along with barber shops, solons and tattoo parlors will be allowed to reopen with specific guidelines on May 1 as Gordon slowly eases health restrictions put into place in March to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The guidelines include wearing face coverings, observing social distancing and limiting the total number of people to no more than ten inside a confined space, including employees.
Social gatherings in gyms is being strongly discouraged.
“Exercise and good fitness are very important for public health,” said Harrist, “and certainly one of the considerations is opening up gyms with careful social distancing measures.”
“We’re asking the public to use it as a place of exercise,” she continued. “I know it’s going to be hard to resist the urge to go gather and talk with the other people at the gym, many are friends and colleagues, but try to resist that and stay six feet away from everyone as much as possible, have some long distance conversations.”
Wyoming Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell said during the briefing that businesses need to go through the guidelines and promote how they’ll meet them.
“Probably at the beginning especially, erring on the side of safety and concern beyond the guidelines and ensuring people feel safe and can begin to come back,” said Dorrell.
“If I was the owner of a gym, I’d make sure that I did everything I could to sanitize and keep those social distancing rules as well,” added Gordon.
“I think when we open these businesses, the last thing they want is to be the place where things go wrong,” he said.