Hello to all the big Green Apple family
WOW, we can open again!
Thank goodness, this morning at 9am we had the news that Qld Health has announced a significant relaxation on the total Lock down we have all been under since last Friday 6pm. I have been worried sick about a possible 30 day closure so I am now prepared to do anything we need to, to abide by the current restrictions.
Mask Wearing. One of the areas we need to be compliant in for the next 10 days, from when we open tomorrow at 5.30am until 1am on Friday January 22, is mask wearing. I know this will be challenging for some, and even more challenging for those of you who do really hard cardiovascular work . For the next 10 days I think we all need to decide what equipment will give us our best outcomes, without unnecessary stress.
I know from first experience that when I rode from Lamb Island to Bald Hills yesterday to return to work (70km in a mask and unable to wear sunglasses because of the fogged-up lenses!), that riding over the Gateway Bridge was certainly more interesting than when I do it without a mask, and that riding along the flat was much easier. I found it manageable however and, since the roads were emptier than I have ever experienced previously, I was happy to take the good with the bad.
So when you come to do your exercise you may wish to amend things a little, to do your strength exercises, and perhaps your core, balance and stretch exercise with your mask on, and then take off around the block (.9km) without a mask to do some cardio exercise. We used to offer this in our programming regularly in the past because it is a nice quiet walk with a little slope and can be done multiple times if necessary to extend the effort.
I would love to authorize this mask-off option in the cardiovascular area however since it will be difficult to monitor and just add to the confusion, mask wearing throughout the Centre will be required for the next 10 days.
Having said this, there are a couple of Exemptions to wearing a mask that can be offered under certain specific conditions
- Children 12 and under are not required to wear a mask in the Centre
- Clients whom have a medical condition that will be affected/aggravated by wearing a mask, and whom have evidence of this, will be exempt from mask wearing IF they are having a supervised one-on-one appointment with an exercise physiologist (or an NDIS client with the exercise professional one-on-one).
The second category, the exemption due to a medical condition, will only apply to people having one-on-one sessions with a Team member so you will know that there is a reason a valid reason why this member has no mask.
Since I know many of our members are anxious about the whole pandemic problem, I want clear guidelines for everything we will be asking of you. I just want to keep us all safe, and feeling safe, members and staff alike.
The Team will be focusing on the following areas
- Mask wearing compliance (no entry without a mask unless you meet the criteria above)
- That you are wiping all equipment down (where you have had contact with it) after use, as was required when we first re-opened last year. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether you wear gloves or use hand sanitizer.
- That you are washing hands regularly and using the sanitizer provided throughout the Centre.
So from 5.30am tomorrow all services and appointments (with exercise physiologists Sunny, Bridie and Charlotte and with exercise professionals Darrol, Loretta, Wanda, Katrina and Charlie, and massage with Toni) will be up and running and we expect to see YOU in to support our efforts to keep everything as “normal” as possible in the Green Apple.
My warmest wishes to everyone
