BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Gyms and hair salons are now allowed to operate in an orange zone, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
The two high-risk industries have been shut down throughout most of Erie County's orange zone since November. They can reopen at 25% capacity and weekly testing of employees.
The governor, citing contact tracing data, said gyms only represented 0.06% of spread from September through November while hair and personal care services represented 0.14% of the spread. Household and social gatherings caused 73.84% of spread.
"Gyms are one of the lowest known spreaders now by the facts," Cuomo said.
While the news is good for business owners, there is still frustration that the governor did not listen to them weeks before.
"It's been a roller coaster up and down," Catalyst Fitness owner Amy Bueme told WBEN. "(He's) just totally bashing and killing our industry. A lot of small owners have gone out of business and might not be able to reopen and here we are today, (Cuomo) makes this big announcement…well great. I'm glad that you acknowledged it and we can now open, but it's just too bad that it took this long and a lot of bashing and killing our industry to get to this point."
Bueme said she will still advocate for gyms to be considered an essential business. She said data from gyms showed there were billions of check-ins across the country and only 19 cases that were traced back to fitness centers.
"That's how absurd and how low the number was," Bueme said.
She now hopes she can reopen on Monday. Bueme said she plans to discuss procedures and scheduling on Friday afternoon with her managers at her seven locations.
If she does get her gym opened as early as Monday, it may only reopen for a few hours. Governor Cuomo said Friday he will announce new cluster zone restrictions on Monday. Erie County hospitalizations have continued to increase over the last several weeks and a red zone means all non-essential businesses, including gyms, will shut down again.
"I'm still not going to stop with getting doctors to vouch for us and write letters of recommendation that, on some level, we are a spoke in the medical wheel of being essential," Bueme said. "The data has shown we are not a spreader. Not only are we essential for medical and physical well-being, (we build) people's immunities up so if they do get sick, they're stronger and are better off to fight it. A higher BMI affects people with COVID. If you can work out and take care of yourself and your body fat is lower, you're able to fight it off better."
