Under normal circumstances, Nicole Mereshensky works out about five times a week at various indoor cycling and high intensity interval training studios around Manhattan.

“Fitness is everything to me,” said Ms Mereshensky, a mother of two school-age children. “It grounds me mentally more than anything.”

But in the last week, she has been trying to weigh the anxiety of not working out against the worry of being sweated on or otherwise potentially exposed to the new coronavirus.

Ms. Mereshensky, 39, has reduced her schedule to three classes a week, and, in an effort to avoid germs on public transportation, will go to classes only within walking distance of her New York apartment.