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There are now five positive cases related to Bendigo's McQuinns gym, the owner confirmed via social media.
Owner Danny McQuinn apologised for any inconvenience caused with the testing and isolation.
"To date including staff we have five positive results. All of whom were tested and isolating almost immediately," he said.
"Gladly and with much relief the impact of illness has been substantially minimised."
Mr McQuinn said the five people were in good spirits.
"Thankyou for your sacrifice and thankyou for helping to keep our greater community safe," he said.
"I have maintained regular communication with the positive people. They are all in good spirits and for the best part they are doing really well."
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The gym will remain temporarily closed until all staff are available and free from illness and isolation requirements.
The gym is listed as a tier one exposure site:
- October 10 between 2.30pm and 6.30pm
- October 11 between 5am and 7.30pm
- October 12 between 5am-8.45am
Saturday, 1.30pm
MCQUINNS Gym closed its doors before owner Danny McQuinn received a positive COVID-19 test result on Friday night.
Mr McQuinn and his team decided to be proactive and made the decision to close before his result had come through.
"I'd been to Melbourne on October 8 for a management training session and received a phone call to say someone in the building had returned a positive result," he said.
"I hadn't had any contact with this person, but I was already at home with a back injury so I decided to get tested."
On October 12, Mr McQuinn began to show symptoms of COVID-19.
"That night I began to develop symptoms and they were pretty full on," he said.
"It's worth saying, people displaying symptoms or who hold onto really minor symptoms should know they can be more severe than they think."
Mr Quinn and staff at the gym decided thatt instead of waiting for the test result, they would begin their own contact tracing.
"Gyms have the best contract systems, we've had people signing in for more than 20 years," he said.
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"Before the Department of Health became involved, we actually formulated our own contact tracing.
"I contacted every close contact I'd had days before I got my result back to say I had symptoms and this is the situation.
"By the time DHS rang me on Saturday morning, I'd already sent out 1200 messages to our customers.
"We didn't put hours on it, I would rather say someone who had been there since Tuesday should go get tested to be safe."
Mr Quinn said the gym would most likely be closed until early November as staff isolate and get tested.
One staff member has already returned a negative result.
He hoped the work staff had done would change the perception on gyms during the pandemic.
"Gyms have been labeled as dirty places and the fitness industry has really suffered, like many industries during the pandemic,"Mr McQuinn said.
"There have been no cases come out of a gym to date and hopefully if we can have minimum positives come out of this, we can prove that gyms aren't dirty places."
If anyone has visited McQuinns Gym this week or begin showing any symptoms, they are urged to isolate and get tested.
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