COVID-19 transmission settings

How do people get COVID-19? Closing gyms is at odds with the government’s message of promoting healthy lifestyles as well as there being no evidence of a significant transmission risk. Gyms represent just 3% of common locations reported by people testing positive (i.e. multiple cases in one location) compared with 10% for pubs.

Determining where COVID-19 is transmitted is not an easy task. In its weekly surveillance report Public Health England provides data on common exposure locations reported by people testing positive. That is, locations people visited where more than one person subsequently tested positive for the virus. This gives some indication of where the transmission risks lie.

As the data above for the week of Oct 5th show, the most frequently reported common locations were supermarkets, pubs or bars and cafes or restaurants.

Initially, regions placed in Tier 3 of the government’s local lockdown system would have mandated gym closures. This move was met with a great deal of objection, as it is not only inconsistent with the government’s message of promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing obesity during the pandemic, but also because there is no evidence that gyms present a significant transmission risk. 

As the data above shows, gyms account for only 3% of common locations reported by people testing positive. These people are also likely to be amongst the healthiest and least vulnerable to the virus.

No adjustment is made in these data for how commonly a location is visited. It is likely that more people visit supermarkets than gyms, leading to the higher proportion of common exposures. However, this does not detract from the argument to keep gyms open.