Orange County health officials announced Thursday that personal care service providers including nail salons and massage parlors can reopen Friday.
Other personal care businesses that may reopen include those that require touching a client’s face, like facials, electrolysis and waxing; esthetician, skin care, and cosmetology services; electrology; body art professionals, tattoo parlors, and piercing shops; and massage therapy.
The reopenings come after nearly three months of state-mandated closures intended to curb spread of the novel coronavirus. The state announced Monday that personal care businesses would be allowed to reopen Friday, pending county approval.
Los Angeles and Ventura counties also announced Thursday that they would allow such services to resume.
The state released guidelines that personal care businesses are required to follow in order to reopen. Workers and customers must wear face masks, and businesses must implement more intense cleaning practices for shared reusable items like tweezers.
Services will be limited, with no mouth or nose tattoos or piercings allowed for the time being.
“Eighty percent of nail salons in California are owned by Vietnamese Americans, many of which are right here in Orange County,” said O.C. Board of Supervisors chairwoman Michelle Steel. “While we have continued to open more businesses, these hard working people were excluded.”
The announcement comes after coronavirus-related ICU hospitalizations in the county jumped 76% in the last six weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Thursday, the county reported 132 new COVID-19 cases and 7 deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 9,292 with 250 deaths.
Also on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order requiring Californians to wear face coverings while in public or in high-risk settings after the state recorded a single-day high in coronavirus cases.
O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes said in response that he has no plans to enforce the mandate.
“It is each person’s responsibility to wear a face covering … in order to stop the spread of COVID-19; it is not law enforcement’s responsibility to enforce it,” Barnes said in a statement. “I expect that Orange County residents will continue to use common sense approaches for the benefit of their own health, as well as the collective health of other county residents.”
