This week, new research provides a stark reminder that COVID-19 and the academy do not go very well. Indoor group fitness classes are actually a very effective way to transmit the coronavirus, according to two new studies from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Both studies looked at outbreaks of COVID-19 that occurred at fitness centers in Honolulu and Chicago during the summer of 2020 – including a cycling class in which all participants became ill. This outbreak was detected in an investigation by the Hawaii Department of Health. For the investigation, contact trackers and case investigators linked 21 cases of COVID-19 to two fitness instructors who taught several classes in June and July 2020. They taught while they were infectious, but before showing noticeable symptoms.
One of these instructors taught a 60-minute high-intensity indoor cycling class just four hours before his symptoms started that night. The instructor and students were all positioned at least six feet apart, but none wore a mask during the exercise, according to the facility’s protocol, and the windows and doors were closed. The instructor was facing the class, “shouting instructions and encouragement,” says the report, and probably spreading infectious respiratory droplets containing the virus. The following week, all 10 people who attended class tested positive for COVID-19.
Of these infected participants, one was also a fitness instructor, who would later be admitted to the ICU for a serious case of COVID-19. But before his symptoms appeared, he taught several classes, without a mask, in a different facility – including a personal training session and three small kickboxing classes just 12 hours before his symptoms appeared. Of the 11 people exposed that day (five of whom were also exposed to the instructor two days earlier), 10 would test positive for COVID-19 in the following days. The two students who wore masks and one of the instructor’s four personal training clients the day before were also positive.
Another CDC study looked at cases linked to a Chicago gym operating at 25% capacity during the last week of August 2020. Of 81 people who attended high-intensity indoor classes that week (with the majority going to several), 55 would be diagnosed with COVID-19. Participants brought their own rugs and weights, underwent symptom tests and temperature checks on arrival and kept two meters away – but were not required to wear masks during the exercises. Of the 58 respondents, 76% reported that they rarely wore masks. (Perhaps most shocking: 22 participants who tested positive for COVID-19 went to a class on the same day or after the onset of symptoms – including three who went to a class on the same day or after getting a positive test result. It is possible that some went to class earlier in the day before noticing symptoms later in the day.)
None of the reports is surprising, of course, given what we know about the spread of COVID-19 and the academy. In both case studies, public health experts found that a combination of inappropriate mask use, high breathing effort, lack of ventilation in an enclosed space and prolonged close contact were among the likely factors that facilitate transmission. All of this is in line with what we already know about the coronavirus, which spreads mainly through respiratory droplets.
The safest way to exercise during this pandemic is at home or outside (alone or just with the other members of your household). And while the risk of exposure when attending a fitness class with others is never zero, as SELF reported, it is possible to make the scenario safer by moving it out (or ensuring sufficient airflow) and making sure that everyone use the proper physical distance and wear masks.