Rejected petition Re-open Gyms & Swimming Pools in Wales

Welsh Government Minister Eluned Morgan, confirmed on 1 February that re-opening gyms and fitness facilities would be one of the first things the government will consider when restrictions are reviewed again. This did not occur. Gyms should be considered for re-opening at the next Welsh Government review. Gyms could re-open and safely with additional restrictions - such as booking, no classes and users must train singularly to avoid transmission.

More details

Data published shows that for every 100,000 visits to UK gyms and leisure centres during 2020, only 1.7 people went on to test positive for COVID-19.

In addition to this being an exceptionally low figure, there is no evidence that transmission took place in gyms.

Released by industry body, ukactive, the data is based on more than 75 million facility visits across the UK, from the initial reopening of gyms in July 2020 to the end of December 2020, before the third national lockdown began in England at the start of January 2021.

The results show that while the case rate for the UK’s general population rose consistently over the time period, the prevalence of the virus in people using gyms and leisure centres remained extremely low.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue, or if the Petitions Committee has considered one in the last year.

Other petitions calling for this are already collecting signatures:

Open gyms on March 15th to support the mental health and physical well being of people https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244718

Workout To Help Out Scheme https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244662

The Petitions Committee is already considering a petition on this issue:

Keep gyms open and consider them as important as shops should another national lockdown take place https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244240

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards

Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted

Date submitted 19 February 2021
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