Much to the relief of businesses across California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced at his recently concluded press conference that the state is making some amendments in the workplace closure guidelines that were rolled out last week. This adjustment will specifically affect barbershops, hair salons, and the personal care services industry.
Newsom said the new guidelines have been published on the COVID-19.ca.gov website. The recently introduced guidelines explain what people can and can't do, given that it includes hair cuts and a slew of other activities that the state will be moving from indoors to outdoors for the personal care services industry, he said.
The governor went on to explain that issues of chemicals, shampoos, and perms turned out to be more complicated than previously understood since it relates to local law, rules, and regulations. Newsom said they worked through these regulations in the last few days, but the guidelines were not updated on the state’s web site even after the speech.
During the press conference, Newsom noted that 6,847 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Monday, with a 14 day average of 8,911 cases reported daily. On July 7, an all-time record of new cases was 11,694. Over the past 14 days, the test positivity rate has been at 7 to 4 percent and the number of tests has also gone up, which is expected to bring the test positivity rate down.
Newsom pointed out that the numbers can change in a matter of few days depending on the personal behavior of the public, which will determine the direction of the lines on the graph, but more importantly, the direction of the state's ability to reopen businesses and even the schools, noting that everyone is desperately looking forward to it.
When asked about whether or not school guidelines can be adjusted to accommodate outdoor classrooms, Newsom said he was open to considering that in counties that manage to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and come off the state's watch list.
California Health & Human Services Agency Secretary Mark Ghaly responded to claims by some citizens that some test results take 10 to 12 days to come back, saying the average of 7 days is likely to be the true average. Ghaly said tests from hospitals take about a couple of days, while other test sites are probably taking 2 to 3 weeks to provide test results.
The problem, Ghaly says, is that delayed test results suggest the virus gets about 14 days before it is detected, but until then the infected person could have passed it on to others before the test results come out. He also said a Testing Task Force 2.0 is matching each testing site with labs so that tests can be processed more quickly.