GoodLife Fitness says staff have been working to keep on top of cleaning and sanitization as the gym chain reports members and associates at five gyms in Toronto and the surrounding area have tested positive for coronavirus over the past month.
The statement came as the company confirmed a staff member and a patron at the Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West gym reported on Wednesday that they tested positive for the virus.
“The affected individual has not been back in the Club since Friday and has not been in any other GoodLife club,” Tracy Matthews, vice president of operations at GoodLife Fitness, told Global News in a statement Thursday afternoon.
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“The associate informed GoodLife shortly after receiving the positive test and, out of an abundance of caution, we informed members who were also in the club at this time.”
On Friday and Monday, GoodLife said two staff members at Mississauga’s Heartland Town Centre reported testing positive for coronavirus.
Earlier in August, two staff members contracted COVID-19 at the Dunfield Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East, just east of Yonge Street (Toronto), and the Yonge Street and Highway 407 (Markham) area locations. A staff member and a patron at the Brampton Gateway location (at Main Street South and Steeles Avenue West) also tested positive for the virus.
Matthews said the company has been working with the public health departments in each municipality where the cases were reported.
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“Our understanding is that these cases have been considered low or very low risk for transmission,” she added.
“GoodLife has taken tremendous strides to implement measures that meet and exceed guidelines set out by local government and public health authorities and are designed to decrease the risk of transmission in our clubs, even if someone who tests positive has been in our facility.”
Gyms were allowed to reopen in stage three of the Ontario government’s reopening plan under regimented guidelines. Toronto and Peel Region entered stage three at the end of July.
GoodLife Fitness has more than 100 facilities in the Greater Toronto Area with more than 3,700 staff members. The company said there have been more than 800,000 patron check-ins over six weeks.
Matthews said each of the affected facilities didn’t close since each club is cleaned multiple times a day.
The company stated it does a “club reset” during every operating hour, using “hospital-grade” cleaning solutions on high-touch areas and surfaces” as well as a “nightly deep clean and sanitization using electrostatic disinfectant sprayers.”
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