Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that beauty salons and hair salons could offer outdoor services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement provides relief to classrooms that closed in March on a stay-at-home order, were allowed to reopen in May, and then closed again on July 13 when the governor closed closed businesses in counties on the state’s watch list.
In a new guide released Monday, after conflicting messages from government entities last week, the state clarified that salons could operate outdoors.
“Our intention was to provide hair salons and the like to be able to do their work outdoors,” Newsom said. “It turned out that it was more difficult than it seems.”
Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach), who has been advocating executive action, wrote about the state’s conflicting rules for outdoor beauty salons and barber services in a letter to Newsom last week.
Petrie-Norris said the July 13 guide from the California Department of Public Health allowed classrooms to operate outdoors. But the Board of Hairdressing and Cosmetology said that all hairdressing and cosmetology services “within the specified counties must immediately close and not offer any services,” including outdoor services.
“As a result, all hair salons and barber shops would have to close and not offer any outdoor services,” Petrie-Norris wrote in the letter to the governor.
The new guide says that outdoor services are allowed if clients and stylists wear masks and meet other safety requirements. Permitted outdoor services include skincare, cosmetology, nail services, and massage therapy. Electrology, tattoo, and piercing services are not permitted indoors or outdoors at this time in counties on the watchlist.
The decision comes as California deals with a 15.7% increase in hospitalizations and nearly 120,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past two weeks. The latest figures show that California has 389,230 total cases and 7,720 deaths.
Newsom announced Friday that most California public and private schools would not reopen at the beginning of the school year under a new ban on classroom instruction in counties experiencing elevated disease transmission, increased hospitalizations, or hospital capacity. limited.
According to the rules, counties must do distance learning if they are on the state’s monitoring list. Schools can only start classes in person if they have been off the list for 14 consecutive days.
Newsom said 33 counties, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Santa Clara, were on the list as of Monday. Counties are home to more than 35.5 million Californians.
