New COVID-19 cases linked to Sydney CBD gym

Just weeks after fitness studios in Greater Sydney were permitted to reopen, NSW Health has indicated that City Gym, in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst, has been an exposure site for COVID-19.

NSW Health today released an alert for City Gym, noting that 15 confirmed cases have been linked to the club, with those who attended the gym at the listed times now considered a casual contact and required to get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.

• All day on Monday 18th October

• 6am to 9am and 5.30pm to 7pm on Tuesday 19th October

• 6am to 11.30am on Wednesday 20th October

• 6am to 4.15pm on Thursday 21st October

• 6am to 11am and 1.30pm to 4pm on Friday 22nd October

• 8am to 11am and 5pm to 7.30pm on Saturday 23rd October

NSW Health said the confirmed cases either trained at the gym while infectious or caught the virus in the gym itself.

Only fully vaccinated people are able to go to the gym under the current NSW COVID-19 restrictions.

Under new NSW Health rules, casual contacts only need to get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.

NSW Health said it had visited the gym and “provided advice on additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission should there be exposures in the future”.

Billy Kokkinis, Executive Director of City Gym, told Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph that the news had come as a "complete shock", stating “you can't tell me one day that we're the cleanest gym and then the next day tell me we're a hotspot.

"Conversely, they have expressed their applause and gratitude for our extra precautionary measures regarding our COVID safe practices calling us the 'benchmark'."

Kokkinis expressed concerns labelling a gym a hotspot would imply the business had not been following appropriate health measures, adding “we have been in undeviating contact with the NSW Health department, meticulously following their instruction regarding our COVID safe practices, procedures and updates.”

NSW recorded 304 new local Coronavirus cases and three deaths in the past 24 hours.

One of the deaths was a person in their 30s.

It comes as travel between Greater Sydney and regional NSW is set to be reinstated on Monday after being postponed.

The urgent alert comes as NSW Health waits for the go-ahead to administer booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, confirming it will keep most of its mass vaccination centres operational to deliver the shots alongside GPs and other providers.

However, some of the NSW Health’s vaccination clinics are scheduled to close in coming weeks.

With the venue looking to allow events to resume as of December, the Qudos Bank Arena mass vaccination clinic at Sydney Olympic Park will shut on 7th November.

Qudos Bank Arena’s vaccination hub opened in August to vaccinate western Sydney HSC students. It remained open to the public and administered more than 360,000 vaccinations.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Qudos Bank Arena General Manager Steve Hevern said his team “jumped at the chance” to assist with helping the state towards its vaccination targets, commenting “there is no doubt that the largest vaccination centre in NSW has greatly assisted in paving the way for the return of a semblance of normalcy to the everyday lives of Australians

Image: City Gym at Darlinghurst is now listed as a casual contact exposure site.