COVID outbreaks have been traced to out-of-state gyms. What does that mean for California?

Turns out indoor exercise in a group setting isn’t so safe after all.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released information on two large COVID-19 outbreaks, one in Chicago, where 55 of 81 participants in high-intensity workout classes caught the virus, and another in Hawaii, where 21 cases were linked to a single fitness instructor.

In a weird way, this is good news for California gyms and fitness centers that have been insisting indoor workouts are safe — as long as masking, social distancing and sanitation rules are followed.

In both the Hawaii and Chicago outbreaks, those who tested positive either didn’t wear masks at the gym or wore them infrequently.

The CDC is now recommending masks during group exercise.

It’s also calling on fitness centers to make sure there’s adequate ventilation in their buildings; to enforce masking and social distancing rules; and to communicate how important it is to stay home if experiencing COVID symptoms.

But that’s still not a total bill of health for indoor gyms.

The CDC also is offering this advice: “Conducting exercise activities entirely outdoors or virtually could further reduce ... transmission risk.”

That’s exactly what state and local health officials have been saying.

For that, they’ve been accused of “ignoring science.”

In some purple tier counties, direct orders to shutdown indoor operations have been openly violated.

Here’s a popular argument: If people are allowed to shop at Costco, they should be able to go to the gym.

Please. People usually aren’t huffing and puffing and sweating pushing a cart around Costco.

And while the CDC study is a good indicator that it’s safe to work out at the gym as long as people follow precautions, that’s not foolproof.

Even with the best of intentions, masks can slip or fall off, especially during vigorous exercise.

And gyms aren’t always great about enforcing the rules. Kennedy Club Fitness, for example, was cited by the city of San Luis Obispo for not enforcing the mask rule, and for operating indoors in violation of rules for “purple tier” counties.

Also, some people are so oblivious — or downright selfish — that they’ll continue to go out in public even if they have COVID symptoms or have been exposed to someone with the virus.

In the Chicago outbreak, 22 people went to the gym on the day they first developed symptoms, and three went to class either the same day or the day after they received positive test results.

Several California counties are moving into the red tier, which means gyms and restaurants can open indoors, though at limited capacity.

That’s great news, but it doesn’t erase the fact that several businesses knowingly defied orders over the past several weeks and that too many local officials looked the other way.

This is a terrible pandemic that has cost the lives of more than 52,000 Californians, and it isn’t over yet.

Case counts are falling, and more and more people are getting vaccinated, but scientists are worried because the rate of decline is slowing and new variants of the disease are spreading.

“We don’t want to be people always looking at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic. So we have to carefully look at what happens over the next week or so with those numbers before you start making the understandable need to relax on certain restrictions,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser on COVID, said on Friday.

A partial lifting of restrictions is just that — a relaxation of the rules, not a return to normalcy.

The CDC study on indoor gym drives home how quickly and pervasively the disease can spread under unsafe conditions.

Don’t be lulled into complacency by assurances that gyms aren’t “a substantial source of COVID outbreaks,” as Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo County) has said, or that the health benefits of exercise outweigh risks of COVID.

If you’re already working out at a gym, or you plan to return once your county is back in the red tier, remember these takeaways from the CDC studies:

Always wear a mask. (And don’t let it drift below your nose or, worse yet, under your chin.)

Stay AT LEAST six feet apart.

If you’re sick, STAY HOME.

Keeping fit is important —but not if it means risking your life, or someone else’s.

This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 2:35 PM.