San Mateo County is the only Bay Area county not on the state watch list, and people from across the region head there for services they cannot get at home.
But as the county sees more new cases of COVID-19, health leaders fear the state will put the county on the watch list in just a few days, meaning gyms and beauty salons would have to close. .
On Saturday night, downtown San Mateo was busy. Tony Llamas drove 22 miles from San Francisco to get his first professional haircut in four months.
“I said, ‘I’m going to try to cut my hair today here in San Mateo, because that’s the only place where you can cut your hair these days,'” Llamas said.
Other stylists said they were also busy Saturday.
One-year-old Ace lives nearby, but many of barber Alex’s Deluxe’s clients drove from San Jose or Dublin to get a cut.
However, it is a luxury that may not be available next weekend.
“It appears to us that the county may be on the state’s watch list early next week, and that is the result of problems related to new cases,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Canepa.
The head of the health department released a statement that said in part: “While we are not currently on this list, our case rate of 101.2 cases per 100,000 in the population (14-day moving average) will likely put us on the list soon . “
Canepa feels that the county was able to reach this phase of easing the restrictions in part due to an aggressive public disclosure campaign launched early.
Canepa also said that while there is some concern about the number of visitors, it comes down to wearing a mask, so the next message from the county will not be about closing hairdressers and gyms.
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