Monday's announcement regarding gyms being able to offer independent workouts and "low-intensity" group fitness activities seemed to raise many questions among Albertans.

Because of this, Health minister Tyler Shandro joined Dr. Deena Hinshaw during a COVID update on Tuesday afternoon to provide some clarifications.

According to Shandro, there's no definitive list of high and low-intensity activities, with "high-intensity" instead being defined by any fitness activity that increases one's heart rate, in turn increasing their breathing rate.

He says this will obviously require people to use their best judgement.

"It's not about what activity you're doing or where, it's about the intensity. Now, we know that this will vary between people, and depending on somebody's individual level of fitness. That's why gym, and studio, and fitness centre operators need to use their best judgement in identifying what category their group exercise classes fall into."

He says they don't want to punish people simply trying to work out or run their business.

"We're not looking for opportunities to hand out tickets, we're not looking to close businesses, we want people to use gyms and other facilities safely. Enforcement, remember, is only ever a last resort."

Dr. Hinshaw says the model takes cues from the way B.C.'s gyms have been operating.

"We know that B.C. has had a similar approach to this model in place for many months and that their COVID-19 numbers have been relatively stable. With this in mind, we looked for ways to open up facilities for Albertans that would allow for low-intensity activities in gyms, and we chose to implement an approach similar to B.C. This empowers operators to tailor their programs for clients to calibrate their services to the activities that will improve fitness while minimizing COVID-19 risk."

She says this is exemplified in the lack of max-capacity for gyms, with the three-metre physical distancing requirements fulfilling that role while allowing operators to make efficient use of their spaces while remaining safe.

According to the province's geospatial data by municipality, there are currently 12 cases in the Town of Okotoks, 6 in High River, and 23 in Vulcan County.

Their broader "local geographic data" shows 0 active cases in Claresholm and 6 in the Turner Valley/Black Diamond area.

Over 245,000 doses of vaccine have been administered, with over 88,000 Albertans having been fully immunized.

257 new cases were identified, bringing Alberta's total to 4631 active cases.

35 additional variant cases were identified, bringing the total to 492.

261 Albertans are currently being treated in hospital, 54 of whom are in intensive care.

Two additional deaths were confirmed, with 1890 Albertans now having lost their lives.

 

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