3 Min Read
BEIJING (Reuters) - Each afternoon without fail, a handful of men mostly in their 60s gather at an old bicycle shed in southwest Beijing, clad in sweatshirts and track pants and ready to pump iron.
Up to eight men could be doing bench presses, dumbbell curls or wide-grip pulldowns in the windowless shed, their rust-stained equipment built decades ago with scrap metal from a nearby railway wagon factory where they used to work - a far cry from modern gyms elsewhere in the Chinese capital.
Many club members were young men in their 20s and 30s when it was founded in 1984 by Zhang Wei, winner of Beijing’s first long-distance race in 1956 and a fellow worker at the state-owned Erqi factory, said current gym manager Xu Wei, 63.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Virgin Active’s UK business will get an additional 45 million pounds ($62.7 million) in funding from the fitness chain’s shareholders as part of a restructuring, its majority owner, investment firm Brait SE, said on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: The Virgin Active logo is seen outside their fitness club in central Singapore, March 5, 2019. Picture taken March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Loriene Perera
Shares in Brait, which holds just under 80% of Virgin Active, had soared 17.65% by 0944 GMT, putting the group on track for its biggest daily rise in more than three months.
Virgin Active Europe has been significantly affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with government-imposed shutdowns forcing the temporary closure of gyms in all of the countries in which it operates.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
HONG KONG, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Hong Kong will ease strict coronavirus restrictions from Feb. 18, re-opening sports and entertainment facilities and extending dining hours, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said on Tuesday, as daily cases in the city dropped into single digits.
Chan, speaking at a news conference, said catering businesses would be able to operate until 10 p.m., from 6 p.m. now. Beauty salons, theme parks, cinemas and sports facilities would be allowed to resume, with conditions in place.
“We see there is room to gradually loosen social distancing measures,” she said, adding that swimming pools, nightclubs and mahjong parlours would remain shut. A ban on gatherings of more than two people in public places also remains in place.
Hong Kong's Health Secretary said on Friday that the government had not politicised any coronavirus vaccine, as she sought to reassure residents worried about China's Sinovac, due to be rolled out in the global financial hub from next week.
By Reuters Staff
(Adds Slovenia also easing measures)
ZAGREB, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Croatia will ease restrictive measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus beginning next week as the number of infections has been steadily falling in recent weeks, the government said on Thursday.
Croatia reported 376 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a significant fall from the peak of around 4,500 daily cases in December.
“We’re following closely the developments and after an analysis with experts we think we can take some decisions which are the signal of easing restrictive measures, but still with a high level of caution as it is still winter and cold weather,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a cabinet session.