A personal trainer who works at a gym in Tacarigua is lamenting that they may have already lost a lot of customers because of the newly established “safe zone” policy. However, Isabelle Boyce is hoping to build a new circle that will help the establishment get back to the flow that the business was at before the covid-19 pandemic. 

Speaking to PSA media today, Boyce said: “I am hoping that the gym picks up especially when you think about the flow of persons that used the gym before the pandemic.” She admitted from her experience speaking with some of her clients who had expressed some form of vaccine hesitancy there was a stigma attached to the vaccine that some of them were not comfortable with. In addition, she pointed out that of the five employees attached to the gym, two had opted not to vaccinate and therefore were unable to attend work. 

Boyce also disclosed that the pandemic had a personal effect on her earning an income. She said that during the pandemic they had tried online sessions but it was not as successful since persons often preferred face-to-face sessions. However, she said that the pandemic also brought out the entrepreneurial side of her since she finally opened her own stationery business. She noted that it was that side-business that helped her sustain herself over the period that work was slow. 

She said from her point of view the first day at her job was relatively decent as it pertains to following the regulations. She said the arrangement at the gym was changed somewhat to cater to the Covid-19 guidelines and enable that they were followed. However, she acknowledged that the “safe zones” were just a strategy for the government to get more persons vaccinated because many persons would have missed those places deemed “Safe Zones.”

Yesterday, the health ministry’s Facebook page had a poster on the “Safe Zone” initiative. Restaurants, bars, cinemas, theatres, private members clubs, gyms and fitness centers, waterparks, and gambling and betting houses were deemed as “safe zones” once patrons were fully vaccinated, walked with proof of vaccination, and had one form of valid photo identification on their person and followed all the public health regulations such as mask-wearing and sanitisation.  According to the page, some stipulations required by the owners and operators at the safe zone environment are: “TT Safe Zone must be prominently displayed at the business entrance, the business must comply with all the TT safe zone rules, etc.”