Churches and hair salons to reopen in Plumas
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom announced an easing of restrictions for church services and retail operations throughout California. Today he announced that barber shops and hair salons would be allowed to reopen with modifications in some parts of the state. What does that mean for Plumas County?
Since Plumas County already had received a variance to move further into Stage 2, it is able to open its barbershops and hair salons now. Its churches will also be able to reopen their doors because of the statewide announcement. (Retail in the county had already been allowed to reopen with modifications such as requiring facemasks, proper social distancing and increased sanitation.) Nail salons are not part of this reopening.
The Plumas County Public Health Agency announced this afternoon that templates soon would be available on its website to help guide churches and affected businesses develop their reopening plans, though they would not be required to be filed with the county. There is also information available now on the state’s website at cdph.ca.gov to assist both churches and businesses.
Churches will be allowed to open for church services and funerals at 25 percent capacity or with a maximum of 100 people. The same rules apply to political gatherings.
The governor also announced that he would be address the status of child care, camps and schools tomorrow. Newsom said the continued process of reopening was due to the state’s ability to test and trace, have adequate hospital bed capacity and provide enough PPE for healthcare and other essential workers. He cautioned that the state’s residents must continue to wear face masks and practice social distancing.
If there is an upsurge in cases, then the state could be forced to reverse some of these decisions, as is the case with neighboring Lassen County. Until last week, the county had no confirmed cases, then it had five attributed which were attributed to visitors but not counted in Lassen County. However that has changed and some residents have been confirmed to have coronavirus with no known link to the visitors. As a result that the county is rolling back some of the progress it made in reopening.
