WASHINGTON — Less than a week after D.C. Mayor Bowser instituted an indoor mask mandate, the DC Fitness Alliance is pushing to be exempt.
In a letter sent to Mayor Bowser and D.C. Department of Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, it stated several gym owners were dismayed by how it disproportionally affects the fitness industry.
The letter, signed by 16 D.C. gyms, asked the city to allow gyms and fitness studios to operate in a vaccine-only capacity and not impose a mask mandate. The letter said businesses would conduct their own strict documentation checks.
“The fitness industry has been uniquely hit and hit hard. Most bars and restaurants are well over 100% of where they were pre-pandemic, but gyms are not,” David Von Storch, the President and Founder of VIDA Fitness said. “We're still off 20 to 25%, so we're not even back to where we were and this masked mandate is going to knock us out.”
Von Storch said he’s currently in the process of requiring all its members to be vaccinated in order to use the facilities.
“We’ve had a lot of members say hey we want vaccination required to entry, here's the challenge, if everybody's not required to do it then that puts us at a competitive disadvantage," Von Storch said. "So, we want the mayor to require everybody to be vaccinated to enter into these places of assembly, and then it will work."
The VIDA Fitness owner said he met with members of the mayor’s office and the Department of Health this week.
D.C. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio said Friday that the city’s health officials considered the letter and the gyms' request.
“In that one setting in the gym you actually do have to have a membership, so you do know who is coming in and it is easier to enforce," Falcicchio said. "They have written a letter to us, we have the health officials taking a look at that. But really what we know right now is where we are with infection in the city and the region and nationally because it’s a critical point. The best layer of protection is to be vaccinated but then an additional layer of protection is wearing a mask.”
However, by Friday evening health officials had come to a conclusion. In a statement sent to WUSA9 from DC Health, waivers will not be granted to gyms or facilities on the mask mandate. Health officials maintain that all people over the age of 2 must wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status.