COVID-19 Safety Plan for:

Gracie Barra Central Richmond (Martial Arts School)

After careful consideration of Dr. Bonnie Henry’s announcements on December 2nd 2020 related to the new COVID-19 restrictions for indoor group physical activities, we have updated Gracie Barra’s COVID-19 Safety Plan and are submitting it to the local Medical Health Officer for approval.

This plan outlines the protocols that everyone at Gracie Barra Central Richmond must follow to perform a safe operation to keep workers and students protected. The rules have been developed in accordance with BC’s Response to COVID-19 and WorkSafeBC Protocols for returning to operation of gyms and fitness studios. We will communicate these guidelines to workers and students, and place posters at entrance and walls of the school. These protocols will take effect after approval of the Medical Health Officer.

Managing People and their Access at the Facility

All workers and students who have symptoms of COVID-19 or have travelled outside Canada in the last 14 days must stay home and self-isolate in accordance with guidance from the BC Centre for Disease Control. Self-isolation is also advised for those who are considered a close contact of a confirmed case.

Students must assess themselves daily for symptoms of common cold, influenza, COVID-19, or other infectious respiratory disease before showing up at the school. If a student develops symptoms while at home, they must stay at home until they have been assessed by a health care provider to exclude COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, and their symptoms have resolved.

A booking system has been used with set duration workout periods. All classes will be pre-booked and limited to the amount of training areas that we can have to keep the requirements on social distancing. The classes are reduced to 45 minutes each and 15 minutes for cleaning and transition to the next class.

We will have mark spaces on the floor outside in front of the studio and inside where people can stand at the front desk with intervals of 2 metres for students to line up. The staff will be monitoring the entrance door to ensure that workers and customers are able to maintain physical distance.

Entry doors will be open so people can pass through without touching handles. Students cannot arrive more than 5 minutes before their appointment. Students will be advised that they must cancel an appointment if they develop symptoms after making an appointment.

The occupancy limit has been stablished ensuring that physical distancing requirement can be maintained. Students are only allowed to partner up on the mat with a household member. Other students can only take classes individually or with a dummy / pillow. All classes will be livestreamed for students who are at home.

Upon the arrival, students will be asked to sanitize their hands, the front desk staff will measure their temperature with a non-contact thermometer and mark their attendance cards (the students will not handle the attendance cards). Then, students will go straight to their designated mat area. We have determined how people should move inside the studio to maintain the physical distancing requirement. We will tape the floor to designate walking and changing areas inside the entire studio marking one-way walkways to keep people separate.

Students will take their belongings to their designated area on the mat (cubbies will not be available for use).

Students are not allowed to walk barefoot outside the mat and the changing room will be closed for now; therefore, students must come to class already wearing their uniform.

The mats have been divided in square shape training areas keeping 6ft from one another, from border to border. We are using tape on the mat to define these areas. Each student will train only inside their designated training area. There will be no side to side line-up or handshakes. The professors will also have their own training area from where they will demonstrate the techniques and correct the students verbally from the safe distance.

Our water fountain is out of service; therefore, every student should bring their own filled water bottle. The water break will happen inside the mat in the student’s designated training area.

Once the class is over, students will be instructed to leave the mat one by one while keeping the social distancing and following the one-way walkway.
Only one person at a time will be allowed inside the washrooms. The floor will be marked with tape to ensure the physical distancing requirement can be maintained when people line up to use the washroom.

Cleaning and Disinfection

Students will wipe down their designated area on the mat after use and the staff will do a second sanitization right after the students have left the mat area. We will provide adequate supplies and garbage bins for disposing used materials.

Our schedule allows enough time between classes for the staff members to clean and sanitize the mats and washrooms between every class.

No gear will be lent to students at this time. We will reinforce to them to bring their own gear for personal use and pillow or other “dummy” if they want to use it.

Common areas such as washrooms and high-contact surfaces such as washroom doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles are sanitized before and after used by a student or staff member.

Hand Hygiene and Respiratory Etiquette

We will instruct students upon their arrival to wash their hands before and after a workout and to use and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

We will require workers to wash their hands and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer immediately upon entering the facility and regularly throughout the day and before leaving.

The staff will be wearing a mask on their entire work shift while inside the school, and all students will be requested to wear a mask while entering and circulating in common areas inside the school. Disposable masks will be available at the front for students.

We will provide supplies for hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette throughout the facility and ensure that disposable masks, used tissues, disinfectant wipes, and safety equipment are properly disposed of in a lined waste bin that is emptied at least daily.

–end of document–