Delta variant outbreak linked to Oakville gym operating under physical therapy exemption
Posted July 7, 2021 4:07 pm.
Last Updated July 7, 2021 4:24 pm.
OAKVILLE – A gym in Oakville, Ont., that had been operating using a physical therapy exemption has been ordered to shut down after being linked to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Halton Region Public Health says it is aware of as many as 15 cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant linked to the “Muscle HQ gym.”
Gyms across Ontario are currently not allowed to offer indoor services but Muscle HQ had been operating by allowing members with doctors’ notes that cite the need for physical therapy to train.
Co-owner Ali Siddiqui says in a Facebook video that the gym received a shutdown notice on Saturday, confirming that the Delta variant was found at the facility.
He says more than 400 people could have been exposed to the virus as a result of the outbreak at the gym.
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Health Minister Christine Elliott says since the gym remained open during the pandemic, the Delta variant is now “circulating very widely through the population of people that use that.”
On Wednesday, Elliott cited the risk posed by the more infectious Delta variant, which has caused virus resurgences in areas with high vaccine coverage like the U.K. and Israel, and locally in some Ontario jurisdictions that had seen relatively few infections before the variant took hold.
