Less than a month since government mandated a range of requirements for gyms and indoor sporting facilities, Premier Wayne Panton has vowed to make amendments following pushback from the sporting community.

“We are reviewing all of these existing regs.,” Panton told the Cayman Compass. “We will look to wherever we can, to minimise the impacts and make some changes.”

The premier’s comments come on the heels of several sporting associations expressing frustration to the Compass regarding the current COVID-19 protocols and why the sporting sector appears to have been unfairly singled out.

Under the current regulations, fitness centres can only permit entry to people who present proof of vaccination, or a negative PCR test result taken no more than 48 hours beforehand. Other sectors are not subject to the same requirement.

Several local gyms have noted a drop in customer attendance since the regulations came into effect, while various sporting associations reported that they have had to halt or cancel scheduled competitions.

Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, told the Compass earlier this month that the protocols represented a biased approach by the government.
“The regulations were made to affect sports,” Whittaker said. “It doesn’t affect the bars or the clubs, only sports.”

The Cayman Islands Squash Club also expressed disappointment stating, “When you take sports away from people…[it] doesn’t help when you’re trying to fight off the virus.”

Panton sympathised with those who are feeling the effects of the regulations and addressed the criticism that sports have been unfairly targeted.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that they were singled out,” Panton said. “Because of the inherent nature… and what is being done in those confined places, there is a significant elevated risk of potential infection with anyone who may be positive.”

However, when Panton was asked why other social venues were not subject to the same requirements, despite the risk of coming into close proximity with other people who are not masked, Panton responded: “There is supposed to be social distancing, there is supposed to be mask wearing, obviously you cannot do that… when you’re drinking either but it’s not quite the same circumstances as people who are really huffing and puffing and exerting in the studio setting.”

He admitted that “it’s not an easy process”, stating that his government is following the advice from Public Health.

“For us to ignore that and say well, actually, there is [sic] people that are complaining, we have to have a really good reason,” he stated.

The current COVID-19 regulations are scheduled to expire on 22 Nov., but Panton said amendments will be made to keep a sense of fairness between fitness centres and other businesses, such as clubs and bars.

“For those people who are impacted, I want to promise them that we will look very carefully at trying to figure out how we can get the balance better so that it’s less of an impact on them.”

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