A woman walks her dogs amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease , in Liverpool, Britain October 13, 2020. — Reuters picFor one gym owner in the northwest of England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's latest Covid-19 lockdown is a step too far. To save his business, he is defying the government's command to close, along with dozens of other gyms in the area.
"We're supposed to be closed but we are open," Chris Ellerby-Hemmings, 36, owner of EmpoweredFit Gym in Greasby, near Liverpool, told Reuters. British government scientific advisers say the virus, which emerged in China last year, is spreading fast across all parts of the United Kingdom and that critical care beds are starting to fill up with Covid-19 patients in high risk areas.
"If we did close again, because we have taken on a lot of debt, we would not be able to reopen. The staff would lose their jobs and I would lose my business," he said.