Nail salons across California can now resume indoor operations with modifications, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced Tuesday during a news conference, while Los Angeles County officials said they will look into when to give the green light.
“Today, after consideration from a number of different sources, looking at the evidence, understanding how sectors fit into our entire framework, we are announcing a move — and we will be working with our counties and our local sector leaders — around nail salons being able to move into the purple tier,” he said.
Ghaly said more details on modifications for how businesses can operate to help reduce the risk of spreading the virus will soon become available.
This means that regardless of which tier a county is in, California has greenlighted nail salons to move from outdoor services to indoor, with limitations such as opening with a 25% capacity.
Counties can still choose to keep businesses outdoors, however. In L.A. County, nail salons must continue to operate outdoors until further notice, which Public Health officials said Tuesday they will look at deciding an appropriate time.
“The state also announced that counties may now make their own determination to allow nail salons to resume indoor operations,” read a statement. “Public Health will be consulting with the Board of Supervisors to determine the timing of adopting changes to the county health officer order that would allow nail salons to resume modified indoor operations.”
Nail salons were previously and briefly allowed to operate indoors in June but were ordered to shut down again in mid-July as the county saw a spike in COVID-19 cases following the July 4 holiday.
The move comes after Los Angeles County — which continues in the purple tier, considered the state’s most restrictive level — allowed in early September hair salons and barbershops to reopen indoors. Officials had announced then that options for increasing capacity would be re-evaluated three weeks after Labor Day.
Ghaly also announced counties that had moved tiers, such as Alameda, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo and Solano, which are now in the red tier. El Dorado, Lassen and Nevada moved to the orange tier and Mariposa moved to yellow, the least restrictive level.
Under the state’s four-tiered, color-coded blueprint, counties must remain in a new tier for at least three weeks and meet the requirements for a new tier for two weeks before moving on to a less restrictive one.
