Manteca leaders and working with state officials in a bid to get clearance for the city’s barbershops, hair stylists, and nail salons to reopen by serving their clientele in an outdoor setting.
The San Joaquin County Health Department on Monday issued modified COVID-19 orders allowing fitness centers, gyms, nail salons, barbershops, hair salons, tattoo parlors, card rooms and places of worship to reopen providing services take place outside.
A Ripon barbershop did that earlier this week and immediately got shut down by the state agency that issues licenses. There is a state law that requires licensees for personal care services to only conduct their business with the physical confines of where they do business.
Manteca Police Lt. Stephen Schuler, who is part of the city’s emergency operations command center staff, has been in contact with state bureaucrats in a bid to work out guidelines to allow barbershops and such to operate outside during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has been told the city may receive an answer as early today.
Once Manteca receives the green light, City Manager Miranda Lutzow said city staff is ready with guidelines to allow encroachment on city sidewalks and into parking lots so that shops could get outdoor services up and running within 24 hours.
There have been three hair salons/barbershops approach the city so far.
Schuler noted outdoor operations outside existing places of businesses is much more effective in terms of not spreading COVID-19 than having people from various households go to the homes of various stylists for hair care before such personal care services were allowed to reopen but have since been ordered closed down after COVID-19 cases started surging.
The Centers for Disease Control has noted that social distancing with protocols in place outside reduces the potential for COVID-19 from spreading more effectively than the same measures being taken inside.
The city has already taken similar steps to allow restaurants to expand outdoor dining onto sidewalks and into parking lots in response to the county reclosing dining rooms.
Information about outdoor dining and how it can be fast tracked is available through the Manteca Community Development Department.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
