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Up to 120 gym-goers can be considered casual contacts from one of Auckland’s recent Covid-19 community cases.
The infected man visited Snap Fitness Browns Bay while infected on Saturday, October 17.
Brendan Hurrell, general manager of Snap Fitness Auckland, said that between 100 and 120 gym-goers may have to isolate themselves until their test results are negative.
He said the gym provided swipe card entry numbers to ARPHS.
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Ten other people who attended the I Am Hope boot camp at the Browns Bay Beach Gym were considered close contacts and had to remain in self-isolation for 14 days, regardless of the outcome.
Hurrell said the 10 contacts included two staff members, the club manager and a coach, two members and six non-members.
GOOGLE MAPS / Supplied
The Snap Fitness gym in Browns Bay was visited by a person who has coronavirus (File photo).
To date, the club director’s first test had come back negative.
Hurrell said the man visited the gym around 9.50 a.m. Saturday to meet with members before attending training camp on the beach around 10 a.m.
Then he went back to the gym to work out and left around 12.30pm.
Hurrell said the gym had undergone a series of deep cleanings since learning of the case Wednesday afternoon.
The gym’s reopening was delayed until 9 a.m. Sunday and only members could enter.
He described the risk to gym-goers as “very, very low,” but said Snap Fitness wanted to protect the Browns Bay community, which has “quite a few elderly members.”
Hurrell said he had been in contact with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) since Wednesday, but said that when he received the news, he did not believe it.
“At first I didn’t believe it. I thought it was a hoax. They were in [alert] level 1, I didn’t expect it. “
The gym had its own contact tracing measures, but Hurrell admitted that members’ use of the NZ Covid Tracer app had dropped to alert level 1.
In a Facebook post, the gym said those who attended the bootcamp were considered close contacts to the case and should seek to get tested, citing the gym’s unique test code “SURV-TM4CL1.”
Those in the gym between 10.30 am and midnight that day were considered casual contacts and should also be tested, quoting the test code “SURV-TM4CL2”.
The latest cases of community transmission come from an Auckland port worker, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 last weekend.
He is believed to have contracted the virus aboard a ship that is now anchored off the coast of Australia.
Two of the worker’s colleagues and some of his household contacts went to various public places on the North Shore before realizing they had contracted Covid-19.
One of the men went to the Greenhithe The Malt pub hours after being exposed to the virus at his workplace, Wright Technologies, in Rosedale.
Everyone who works at the bar and who is classified as close contacts on the case has since tested negative.
ARPHS has been contacted for comment.
