Owner Of Boutique Gym Describes Anticipated Reopening As 'Massive Relief'
SANTA MONICA (CBSLA) — While fitness boutique studio owner Adam Gruen is used to pushing limits, the shutdown was a kind of weight like no other.
Gruen's Row House in Santa Monica -had only been opened for 55 days before the shut down.
Now, he's working to reopen, and is taking measures to ensure the public is safe.
"We're going to be checking temperatures when they come to class," he said, adding that he is also implementing a ban on equipment sharing, extra sanitizing and reducing capacity to half of the machines.
"We've also spaced out the rowers," he said, exceeding what is required to keep his clients safe.
But as fitness studios like his reopen, the state is still posting some troubling numbers, adding another 3,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday alone. Those figures marked the biggest increase in a single day of new cases, so far.
"Particularly for people with underlying health conditions, and for people who are older, we do not recommend that you go out," Dr. Barbara Ferrer said.
But Ferrer says there are indicators that it is safe to reopen some businesses, pointing to data that shows an improvement in contact tracing. Also, the percentage of people testing positive is holding steady at 8 percent.
"We've exceeded our goal of being able to test 15,000 people a day," she said. "At the peak, we were testing over 20,000 a day."
Back at Row House, Gruen says he is doing his part to make sure his studio doesn't add to the spread.
"We're going to be cleaning all the dumbbells between classes whether they were used or not," he said, adding that though he's survived one shutdown, he doesn't want to see his rowing machines sitting idle again.
"We were concerned about how long we'd be closed, how many members would cancel, and things like rent," he said.
Starting next Friday, the state has given the green light for tattoo, massage, and nail salons to reopen with county approval.
