New statewide COVID rules mean Modesto-area hair salons can open next week
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced changes Friday in the reopening process for counties stricken by coronavirus in California.
The state’s new system will make it harder for Stanislaus County to be removed from the state’s coronavirus watch list or what’s now called the purple tier where the disease is considered widespread in California. But it clears the way for local hair salons to reopen for indoor service starting Monday.
Downtown Modesto Salon Vanity owner Vanessa Santana said the reopening news is a “sigh of relief.” She, and other local salon owners, had been part of a #SaveOurSalons campaign to push the state to allow them to reopen for indoor operation.
“It’s really hard to receive five to eight text calls a day from people wanting you to service them,” said Santana, who owns the 11th Street salon and the next-door Halo B boutique.
With the 100-degree heatwave in the valley recently, and the dangerous air quality caused by wildfire smoke, Santana said outdoor operation was not an option for them. She said the industry has taken a big hit with the COVID-19 closures.
The governor also announced that nail salons and skincare and cosmetology services could reopen for outdoor operations with safety measures, and that indoor malls could reopen inside at 25% capacity while common areas and food courts remain closed.
Stanislaus County public health and emergency services officials met Friday afternoon to digest the governor’s announcement and decided to give the green light for reopening of hair salons and retail Monday. County health officers can impose restrictions that are tighter than the state’s new system but no reason was found for doing that locally.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, said she thought hair salons should not have been closed based on evidence that face masks and other precautions in salons lower risk of infection.
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In recognition that COVID-19 will be in California for the foreseeable future, the state unveiled a new color-coded reopening system for counties based on coronavirus prevalence and testing rates.
Under the state’s new ranking system, counties will fall into four color-coded categories depending on the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the percentage of tests that come back positive, Newsom said. The Newsom administration will also consider how well a county is targeting disease fighting resources for its highest risk residents.
The color categories — purple, red, orange and yellow — will determine how much of a county’s economy can be open. For example, in purple-tier counties, where COVID is deemed most widespread, restaurants can only operate outside.
Stanislaus is one of the 38 counties in the new purple tier. Generally, the counties that have been on the state’s monitoring list are in the purple category, Newsom said.
In those counties, the virus is considered “widespread,” with more than 8 percent of tests coming back positive and more than 7 new cases daily per 100,000 residents.
Meanwhile, restaurants in red-tier counties, the next most restrictive category, can operate at 25% capacity indoors.
You can see where your county falls under the new guidelines here.
Counties in the red tier are considered to have “substantial” disease spread. Disease spread is “moderate” in orange counties and “minimal” in yellow counties, under the new guidelines. There are nine counties – including El Dorado –in the red tier, eight in the orange tier, and three in the yellow tier, including Tuolumne County.
In a significant change from previous guidelines, hair salons and barbershops can now be open for indoor service with modifications throughout the state, even in purple counties. Meanwhile, nail salons can only be open outdoors in purple counties.
Stanislaus County schools expected to continue waiver process
School districts in purple-tier counties like Stanislaus can still apply for waivers to resume classroom instruction for kindergarten to sixth-grade students. The rules that determine when the school districts are eligible for waivers are pretty much the same, Vaishampayan said after Friday’s announcement.
That was her quick assessment, anyway.
To be eligible for school waivers, Stanislaus County has needed to lower a 14-day positive case rate to 200 per 100,000 population. The state’s new system expresses the metric in a different way: 14 daily cases per 100,000 population. Without getting into the weeds, Vaishampayan said the county has been running at about 14.5.
Krista Noonan, a spokeswoman for Modesto City Schools, said Friday that district staff were still reading the guidelines but expect to continue with preparing a waiver application for K-6 students. The district office is still on course to bring a waiver application to the school board for consideration Sept. 8.
If the school board agrees to seek the waiver next month, the county health officer will review the reopening plan, which also requires a sign-off from the state.
“For us, it’s just business as usual,” Noonan said. “We still need to absorb all the different specifications and that type of thing that (Newsom) went over today but we’re working really closely with public health on it to make sure that we’re adhering to everything and abiding by it.”
Noonan added: “We’re definitely in the process of drafting a waiver. There’s a lot that goes into it in terms of intricacies with spelling out the physical distancing within the school, the setup of the classroom.”
Scott Kuykendall, county superintendent of schools, said Friday he didn’t see discernible changes in the waiver process. “Nothing changes for schools, as far as the waiver criteria, even though the state is looking at different numbers,” Kuykendall said. “Those numbers are equivalent to what we were already measuring.”
Kuykendall said the waiver applications will still be moving forward at the same pace. He expects districts will submit them to county public health after talking to their boards, parents and labor groups. He said it’s problematic when the metrics are changed at the state level, because it makes it more difficult for the public to understand and trust the numbers.
Hair salon owners are taking safety seriously
News Friday that salons across the state could reopen Monday with safety modifications was applauded by salon owners.
Volume Salon owner Cheryl Avina plans to reopen Monday. The Modesto salon on 15th Street will work five stylists at a time, instead of its full staff. And safety guidelines like the last time salons were allowed to reopen in late May for indoor operation will be in place again. That includes stylists and customers wearing masks, temperature checks, extra sanitation, hand washing and more.
“We’re still taking it very seriously,” Avina said. “We still want to do our part to keep the numbers low. We don’t want to move into another dangerous tier and don’t want to be shut down again.”
Avina began receiving texts from clients shortly after the governor’s Friday afternoon announcement. She expects, like the last time they reopened, to have a large backlog of appointments. She said after the first closure it took about four weeks to catch up. This time she expects it will take three.
The state’s July rollback, amid a dramatic resurgence in COVID-19 illness, also closed indoor gyms, restaurant dining, worship services, arcades and wineries. The status of those businesses and activities will remain the same until the county moves out of the purple tier.
The state tiers will be updated every Tuesday under the new guidelines. Counties must stay in each tier for at least three weeks before they can move to a less restrictive tier. They will only be eligible to move to a less restrictive tier if their numbers show improvement for at least two weeks.
If they fall short of the metrics for their tier for two weeks, they will be moved to a more restrictive tier.
Newsom said that’s a significant change from the previous guidelines, which allowed for faster reopening.
To reopen all schools for in-person instruction, counties must not only move into the red tier, but remain there for at least two weeks, according to the new guidelines. That means a county must effectively have a test positivity rate under 8 percent and fewer than 7 new cases per 100,000 residents for at least a month to reopen schools.
Stanislaus needs to reduce its infection rate to about 40 new cases per day and post a positivity rate below 8 percent to move from the purple tier to the less restrictive red tier. According to a state website, the county has been averaging 81 cases per day with a positivity test rate of 12.5 %.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 6:13 PM.
