The owner of the Washington Sports Club has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine for flouting DC’s covid-safety orders.
The announcement came Tuesday in a press release from DC’s Attorney General, Karl Racine, who in March sued the health club for failing to enforce the city’s mask mandate and properly disinfect exercise equipment, as well as other violations of DC’s covid safety orders.
“The District put emergency orders in place to help protect the health and safety of residents and reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Racine said in a press release announcing the settlement. “Unfortunately, Washington Sports Club created an environment that not only violated those rules and put District residents at risk, but also had the potential to spread COVID-19.” The settlement, Racine continued, was part of the agency’s effort “to protect residents — especially in the middle of a pandemic — by holding Washington Sports Club accountable and ensuring it follows District laws going forward.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the Washington Sports Club’s owner, New TSI Holdings, Inc., has also agreed to post signs indicating that masks must be worn at all times inside the gym, make sure hand sanitizer is available to its members, and ensure that everyone inside the gym maintains a proper social distance, according to the press release.
To read the full settlement agreement, click here.
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
