Dear Yoga West community member,

We hope that you and your families are managing to stay well during the coronavirus outbreak. Since it began, we have been taking significant measures throughout the studio to protect our community. From Tuesday 17 March we have implemented a number of significant extra measures. We continue to operate Yoga West as normal. Looking after our mental and physical health is very important in the current climate of uncertainty and we want you to know that we are doing everything we can to ensure you stay safe while you stay well.

Measures already in place:

• Making hand sanitiser with a high-alcohol level required to kill Corona virus available on the desk
• Deep cleaning the studio every night, making sure that all commonly used areas like doors, handle, loo flushes, taps, shelves and the studio desk are cleaned with Dettol, which kills corona viruses
• Implementing a studio protocol where the reception team clean these areas also with Dettol after every class
• Increasing the alcohol content of our mat and prop cleaning sprays to ensure they are above the threshold to kill Corona viruses
• Replacing all re-usable towels with single-use paper towels
• Asking all teacher and team to comply with government guidelines and self-isolate if a flatmate or family member has been diagnosed or if they have a repetitive cough or a temperature over 37.8c
• Ensuring all staff wash their hands every hour

Additional measures from Tuesday 17 March:

• Removing all blankets, therabands, straps and eye pillows from the studio cupboard
• Encouraging you to only use props when absolutely necessary
• Encouraging you to use your own mat in the studio. This may become obligatory and we are investigating sourcing and selling at cost the mats we use in the studio to all members
• The studio team will now supervise the cleaning of all mats and props with a high-alcohol spray after every class. Please make sure you clean the studio mat and also clean all parts of any prop you have used and ask for help if you have a problem.
• Finishing classes 5 minutes early to facilitate this cleaning process
• Asking students to leave the studio quickly after class and not to arrive more than 15 minutes in advance of class to ensure there is no overcrowding in the studio and to allow the team to clean props properly
• Reducing the studio capacity to 20 to minimise risk of crowding
• Asking teachers not to make hands-on adjustments and to avoid head massages.

We’d like to ask you to do the following:

• If you have a persistent cough or a high temperature or have a family member or housemate who has been diagnosed then please don’t come to class but consult the government website here
• Please make sure you wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds immediately after walking into the Yoga West studio
• Thoroughly clean any studio mat and props after your class

We have created a plan to live stream our classes and allow you to book on as normal but stream the class to any location and will follow up on this very shortly.

Stay well and stay safe.

Much love,

James, Clara and the Yoga West teachers and team.