Yahoo News Gyms and leisure centres set to reopen within days in further easing of lockdown
Gyms and leisure centres look set to reopen within days, with beauty salons returning soon after, as the government continues the process of lifting further elements of the coronavirus lockdown.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden told MPs he hoped gyms will be allowed to open their doors by mid-July, while the House of Commons was told that close-contact services like nail bars, beauty parlours and tattooists will follow as soon as possible afterwards.
The cabinet minister is due to deliver the latest coronavirus briefing from 10 Downing Street at 5pm today, raising expectations of an imminent announcement.
Daily briefings were halted last month, with Boris Johnson saying that in future ministers would appear only when they had something significant to say.
Answering questions in the Commons earlier in the day, Mr Dowden said that gyms have “engaged very constructively” with the Government to “overcome some of the hurdles” to reopening.
He told MPs: “I hope to be able to make an announcement imminently in relation to that.
“As I’ve said previously, the aim has always been to get gyms back by mid-July.”
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg was later asked for more information about when beauty salons can resume work.
He told MPs: “Our hope is to reopen gyms and leisure facilities in mid-July.
“Other close-contact services, tattoo and nail parlours, will follow as soon as possible.
“The Government has been clear that it wants to reopen the economy carefully and gradually and this is why some businesses which involve less sustained contact between people have opened before others.”
Gyms were excluded from the list of leisure facilities like pubs and restaurants permitted to reopen for business last Saturday, because of fears that coronavirus may spread easily in an environment where sweating, panting and the use of shared equipment is the norm.
It is understood that any return will be conditional on strict observance of Covid-secure rules.
Mr Rees-Mogg admitted that he would not be among those taking advantage of the opportunity to return to the treadmills or weight machines.
“I can’t claim to be a native gym-goer personally,” he told MPs.
“I did have to go occasionally in my childhood and never quite recovered from the experience, but many people up and down the country will be very keen to get back to sports centres, gymnasiums, and swimming pools to get themselves into peak physical performance.
“And they can then compensate by eating out to get back the calories that they’ve just worn off when they have been in the gymnasium.”
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