Nail salons, tattoo parlors can begin reopening in California next week
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced Friday it will give counties the green light next week to allow nail salons and tattoo parlors to reopen based on local conditions and with the approval of county governments.
The decision marks yet another notable step toward reopening much the California economy after it was shut down abruptly by Newsom’s March 19 “stay at home” order in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency, said the decision to finally reopen thousands of salons and parlors around the state was made because officials believe the state and counties are, so far, maintaining a handle on virus cases
Today, many counties are allowing movie theaters, bars, wineries, fitness centers and gyms to reopen.
Nail salons have been considered a higher-risk interaction site for COVID-19 transmission. Newsom at one point said the state believed the first local or community transmission of the virus may have taken place in a nail salon.
The state is issuing guidelines for reopening salons, including mask-wearing, cleaning and limiting the number of customers. That also includes maintaining six-feet between work stations, and vacuuming floors instead of sweeping. Ghaly said reopening day will be next Friday, June 19.
The guidelines cover “personal care that requires touching a client’s face, such as facials, electrolysis, and waxing. This guidance also applies to esthetician, skin care, and cosmetology services; electrology; nail salons; body art professionals, tattoo parlors, and piercing shops; and massage therapy (in non-healthcare settings).”
“The individual operators who pour their life blood into their business are often in communities where it is a big deal to have this business,” Ghaly said. “It is an important statement about our ability to support small businesses across the state.
“It is an important point in reopening California. It’s a sense of normalcy and a return to their routines,” he said.
The state allowed barber shops and hair salons to open two weeks ago.
An industry representative said nail salons have been telling the governor for weeks that his recalcitrance in reopening shops has harmed tens of thousands of manicurists, most of whom are first-generation immigrant females.
The extended ban drove many to work underground, setting up businesses in kitchens, which are not nearly as clean or safe as regular salons, said Fred Jones, legal counsel for the Professional Beauty Federation of California.
Jones said there are 120,000 licensed manicurists in California.
“We think it should have happened with hair salons and barber shops,” Jones said. “(Newsom) shouldn’t have picked winners and losers. It was untenable. We have been telling the governor for weeks these services are happening underground.”
Ghaly said the state is making the announcement to give counties a chance to digest the guidelines and to review their infection strategies to determine whether or not they feel comfortable allowing those businesses to reopen next Friday.
The announcement comes at a key moment in the state’s efforts to simultaneously manage virus spread and to relaunch its economy:
The number of COVID-19 cases has been on the rise, albeit slowly, in recent weeks in California. Ghaly, however, said state officials are comfortable at this point with the reopenings because recent data reviews show that about 4 to 5 percent of those who take the coronavirus test in California prove to be positive.
That number is higher than the state would like, but is steady, and is considerably lower the than initial 8 percent threshold Ghaly’s team set a month ago as a safety level. As of mid-week this week, almost all counties as well were registering positive-test percentages below 8 percent.
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Nail salons, tattoo parlors can begin reopening in California next week."