Reopenings: San Francisco Officials Announce Hair And Nail Salons Will Remain Shuttered
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday that San Francisco has not made enough progress stemming the new surge of COVID-19 cases to allow for hair and nail salons to be reopened.
In a joint statement, Breed and Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said several key COVID-19 indicators still show that a surge of cases and hospitalizations is underway within the city and must be brought under control before reopening can continue.
"Personal services such as haircuts, massages, tattoos and body piercing, manicures and pedicures will not be allowed to reopen at this time," the release stated.
Other activities and businesses that were previously scheduled to reopen either on June 29 or July 13 also will remain on pause.
Those include indoor dining, outdoor bars without food, indoor museums and aquariums, outdoor swimming pools, and real estate open houses by appointment.
Another update on the status of reopenings within San Francisco would be made on Friday.
"San Franciscans did a great job following the Stay Home Order this spring, and we must keep up the good work to get the spread of COVID-19 under control," Breed said in the release. "We are in this for the long haul, and we can't afford to lose focus...It's up to all of us to contain the virus so that we can continue moving forward as a city."
As of Wednesday morning, San Francisco had recorded 4,696 cases of COVID-19 during the outbreak that began in March and there have been 50 deaths.
One of the key indicators of COVID-19 prevalence in the city -- the number of new cases per day per 100,000 people -- has risen to 7.7. That is well above the goal of 1.8 and a sharp rise since reopening began on May 18 when it was 3.5.
The rate of increase in hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients, which does not include transfer patients from other counties, is also a key indicator.
The city health officials goal is to keep that rate below 10%. On Wednesday that indicator showed an increase of 33%.
San Francoisco's hospital capacity, which includes the percentage of acute care and ICU beds that are available, is currently within the acceptable range at 27% for acute care beds and 28% for ICU.
"If our current surge continues, San Francisco hospitals could be overwhelmed in a few months, with 10 times as many cases as we saw in the April surge," Colfax warned. "We crushed that curve, and we can do it again if we redouble our commitment to the safety measures we know work: staying home whenever possible, staying physically distant whenever we go out, consistently wearing face coverings and frequently washing our hands. Let's take care of each other and our City so we can be healthy and begin to reopen again."
San Francisco is currently exceeding the testing goal of 1,800 tests per day, with 2,950 average tests per day and a total of 192,788 tests conducted to date.
