Updated 2/15/2023: As of Sunday, 2/12/2023, NYS has lifted the state mandate on wearing masks in healthcare facilities and most hospitals and doctors offices have made masks optional. We have decided that it’s finally time for us to make masks optional at our studios for both clients and therapists. However, if, as a client you would feel safest with your therapist also wearing a mask during treatment you can request this and our therapists will be happy to honor those requests. You may also find that your therapist or other clients in the studio continue to choose to wear a masks if they or their family are immunocompromised.
UPDATE on Staff Vaccination & Testing Policy – 9/28/2021
Most of our staff have now had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. In accordance with new CDC guidelines for fully vaccinated people, we will not require fully vaccinated therapists to continue regular bi-weekly covid testing, as long as they are symptom free. All therapists will continue to employ our complete set of covid safety protocols that have been working for us since reopening and that have prevented any transmission of covid-19 at our studio. This includes but is not limited to NYS mandated masks for both therapists and clients at all times at the studios.
In addition, we are making the choice as a private business that provides healthcare to mandate that all of our staff follow the NYS Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers. This means that we will require all staff at Bodyworks DW to get their first vaccine shot of an FDA approved vaccine by September 27th in order to maintain their employment. This means that any remaining staff who are not fully vaccinated by October 8th, 2021 will lose their employment with our studios.
All Bodyworks DW Therapists are Fully Vaccinated
At this point, all therapists at Bodyworks DW are fully vaccinated. Nearly all of our support staff is fully vaccinated, or has received at least one shot and will be fully vaccinated by October 24th.
If a therapist or support staff member experiences symptoms and receives a positive covid-19 test, we will immediately quarantine them until they receive a negative test or they have gone 10 days without symptoms as per CDC guidelines. In addition in accordance with NYS guidelines, we will close the treatment room they worked in for 24 hours, then sterilize it before allowing it to be used again. We will assist contact tracers in tracking any clients they worked with and inform them of the results ourselves.
Further Reading
- COVID-19 Safety & Massage Therapy: How Bodyworks DW Has Safely Reopened
- Advanced Massage for Covid-19 Long Haulers: What symptoms can we help?
- Guidelines for Vaccinated Massage Clients
Older Updates to Testing Policy for Posterity
UPDATE on TESTING 10/3/2020: NYC is seeing an uptick in cases in several neighborhoods. The numbers for this are starting to level out and the overall positivity rates are still quite low compared to the rest of the US. However, in response to this, our studio is mandating that therapists get a recent covid-19 diagnostic test. We will continue to test every 2 weeks, as long as testing is easily available, while the NYC positivity rate stays above 1.2% (which is the technical definition of an outbreak).
UPDATE on TESTING 9/3/2020: NYS just updated their guidelines in one significant way. We can now perform inner mouth work for TMJ and migraines if the therapist wears a face shield in addition to a mask and goggles. See the full update on our COVID-19 Safety post for exactly how will perform this work for clients who may need it and want it. Part of the guidelines are a requirement for a new negative covid-19 diagnostic test on or after September 3rd. For any therapist trained in this work who wants to offer it to clients, we will post their negative results here.
UPDATE on TESTING 7/30/2020: NYS is now in Phase 4 and testing is longer required by NYS for massage therapists. Testing is also currently experiencing breakdowns in supply chains resulting in longer wait times for results. Therefore, in the interest of public health, we are no longer asking our therapists to get tested every two weeks to help free up testing capacity for people who are actually experiencing symptoms.