SAN FRANCISCO—Indoor gyms in San Francisco police stations remain open while Shelter-in-Place orders has been effective in San Francisco city, as the Mission Local news first reported on Tuesday, September 2.
Indoor gyms in police stations and other government buildings in San Francisco have remained open, though shelter-in-place orders have taken effect for private gyms forcing them to close. Gyms located in the Hall of Justice and Medical Examiner’s office, the Public Safety building, and other places in police stations are included.
The San Francisco Police Department offered Mission Local a record which is showing 468 users in total came to the workout facility in the Public Safety building in May.
The statement by the San Francisco Police Department includes “Sworn SFPD personnel, as a condition of their employment, are required to maintain their physical fitness.” According to the statement, officers need to pass a physical fitness exam twice in a year, and that is why SFPD continues to operate private gym facilities.
Health Department Director Dr. Grant Colfax did not know that the city’s private gyms remain open at the press conference on August 28.
“I don’t have any information…There are allowances in the health order for government services to deem, what is essential. So, there is at least a theoretical possibility that gyms could be open.”
He commented that it certainly goes against the public health advice, and he wouldn’t recommend people work out inside the gyms in the midst of the pandemic.
On July 29, California Department of Public Health issued an operation guidance against COVID-19 for fitness facilities, a part of which reads “fitness facilities with playgrounds should keep those areas closed until such facilities are allowed to resume modified or full operation.”
