Jeff Guebara was among more than a dozen men who arrived before opening Friday at Uptown Barbershop in Phoenix. The Amazon delivery driver normally gets his hair cut every two weeks. This marked his first cut in two months.
“Hair was going into my mouth. I looked like a little Chia Pet,” Guebara said. “I was thinking ‘I got to get in here.’ “
He opted not to wear a mask, however, because his beard also needed trimming. But his barber was wearing one.
“I’m confident they’re doing a good job of disinfecting everything,” Guebara said.
Salons and barbershops in Arizona reopened for the first time after a month-long state-mandated shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
But most looked different in the new age of social distancing. Uptown Barbershop owner Ronnie Yagudaev was using a newly created electronic sign-in system outside. Every client is offered a mask before they sit. The barber stations are now 6 feet (2 meters) apart. With only six stations, Yagudaev was trying to keep the number of total occupants to between 10 and 12.
“It feels different. We’re gonna adapt to the changes — do it safe, do it right,” said Yagudaev, who runs two other locations nearby. It still felt great to be back among customers because “we need them just as much as they need us.”
Josh Rosenbaum, a regular client, said even a simple task like getting a haircut felt comforting.
“I’m a creature of habit, and I’m a teacher. So, I’ve been locked up all day. This is like my first venture out into civilization in two months,” Rosenbaum said.
At nearby Sola Salon Studios, social distancing is a little easier to manage. The space houses 30 one-room suites leased by independent hairstylists, barbers, aestheticians and other beauty professionals.
“It already reduces a lot of crowds, and it reduces possible groups,” said Christopher Nunez, a barber. “But we’re having everyone come in one at a time.”
In another suite, Sue Brower was blow-drying the hair of her first client of the day. Neither was wearing a mask.
“If they feel I need to have one, I would wear one,” Brower said.
In making his decision on the re-openings, Gov. Doug Ducey cited a downward trajectory in the percentage of positive tests along with declines in hospital visits for coronavirus symptoms.
Retail businesses also can resume full in-store sales. Restaurants will be permitted to offer limited dine-in service with precautionary measures starting next week.
Ducey’s current stay-home order is set to expire May 15. Some GOP lawmakers criticized the closures as the economy tanked.
On Friday, a judge rejected a request from a laid-off restaurant worker from Flagstaff who asked the court to bar enforcement of the governor’s stay-at-home order.
Joseph McGhee, who isn’t an attorney but was representing himself in the challenge, argued the order impinges the freedom of movement.
While the governor’s order allows people to leave their home for specified essential services, McGhee said it limits his ability to “wander aimlessly.”
Unlike a quarantine that strictly bars people from leaving quarantine areas, Ducey’s order doesn’t prevent anyone from engaging in activities, leaving their homes or visiting friends and family, U.S. District Judge Murray Snow wrote.
Snow said McGhee “has not raised serious questions as to the merits of this claim, let alone established he is likely to succeed.”
Also on Friday, the ACLU of Arizona and the Perkins Coie private law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of federal prison inmates who are at a high-risk to get severely ill or die from COVID-19, saying their constitutional rights are being violated because the prison isn’t implementing CDC guidelines to maintain safety. The inmates are all awaiting trial and being held at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex in Florence.
The number of known COVID-19 cases across Arizona has passed 10,000, and state health officials on Friday reported 67 additional deaths. The Department of Health Services said on its website that 35 of the newly reported deaths were based on reviews of death certificates from as far back as April 12, based on new guidance from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Gila and Cochise counties reported their first deaths. Only Graham, Greenlee and Santa Cruz counties — three of the four smallest in Arizona — have been spared from COVID-19 deaths.
There were 581 additional infections, bringing the state’s total of known cases to 10,526. It was the largest single-day jump in confirmed infections as the state’s testing capacity ramps up.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
Ducey initially ordered hair and nail salons, barbers and other businesses that provide personal services to shutter on April 3 after he was criticized for not doing so earlier.
The Republican governor had repeatedly said during a town hall that salons and barbershops were not included in his list of essential services that could remain open under a March 23 executive order. Yet the order didn’t specifically name those businesses. It barred cities from acting on their own to close them down.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
