Sonoma County hits new round of reopening as personal care services resume business

The phone rang steadily Friday at The Hole Thing on Santa Rosa Avenue, as customers called to book times for tattoos and piercings, their yearning for more body art pent up over months while they waited for pandemic restrictions to lift.

At Zen Nails & Day Spa in Village Court, every chair that could be filled was occupied, though a few empty ones were necessary to separate groups and individuals under social distancing protocols.

“It’s just a treat to be here,” one client, Cindy Titus, 64, said as she waited to pay for her pedicure. “I have happy feet,” she added, wiggling her toes.

On the first day that a wide range of personal care appointments were authorized to resume since the pandemic forced their closure in March, operators reported substantial demand for their services, making a busy, and hopefully profitable, return to work.

“We’re booked,” Jessica Fabela, apprentice piercer at The Hole Thing, said between phone calls. “I feel like everyone’s just been so anxious, like people have had so much time to think about stuff. After this quarantine, it’s like, ‘Let’s just get this done!’ That’s why we’re getting so many calls.’”

The restart came unexpectedly, after Sonoma County Health Officer Sundari Mase announced Thursday that nail salons and tattoo studios would be allowed to resume Friday, along with a variety of other high-touch commercial activities like massage, waxing, cosmetology, facials and other skin care.

They were the latest additions to a long list of other business sectors allowed to reopen on Friday, including overnight lodging, gyms and fitness centers, race tracks, galleries, movie theaters, bars and pubs, arcades and miniature golf, Mase said.

But the operators of many spas, massage studios and other cleared businesses still needed more time to reopen.

Jennie Jinnevik, owner of La Bella Figa in Rohnert Park, hoped to be set up by Monday to offer waxing at her studio, which also has practitioners providing lashes, microblading and tooth whitening.

Jinnevik already had been remodeling, and new guidelines posted last week by the state mean things have to be moved around some more.

“I’m trying to figure it all out, how it’s going to look,” she said.

Jin Gao, owner of A Simple Touch Spa in Healdsburg, was practically giddy about being back in business on Friday but said it was little wonder not everyone was, given the late notice that massage studios and similar care services would be included in the latest round of reopening.

She said she didn’t learn herself until 9 p.m. Thursday and had not made any appointments until two people who had heard the news Friday called to book some time for a massage.

“I’m so looking forward to work,” Gao said.

At Zen Nails, a slate of new additions had been made to the salon to help make it safer for technicians and clients, including clear plastic sneeze guards at each manicure station.

Customers had their temperatures taken upon entry, while hand sanitizer and a basket of masks at the front counter were available at the front counter. Disposable gloves were also on offer so clients could sort through the nail color selection without leaving germs behind, and each technician wore a mask and face shield.

“This virus is no joke,” said manager Helen Huynh.

Huynh said days were spent cleaning the large salon and getting ready to reopen, but once county health authorities gave the green light, the calls came pouring in from clients who quickly filled up successive days.

“I didn’t know how much they missed it,” Huynh said.

Mase cautioned Friday that businesses can only remain open if residents and business owners adhere to mitigations intended to help prevent transmission of the coronavirus.

She also said more residents need to avail themselves of free testing sites both to help people find out if they may unknowingly be contagious and to assure the state that everything possible is being done to contain viral spread.

Coronavirus, Mase said, “is very good at hiding,” with up to 30% of those infected showing no symptoms or very mild ones, and thus able to transmit it to others without knowing it.

Reopening higher risk enterprises, where people gather indoors in greater numbers and proximity, also enhances the risk of transmission.

“This pandemic is far from over,” Mase said at the end of a week in which Sonoma County gained 121 new COVID-19 cases, including several clusters among vulnerable populations such as skilled nursing facilities and homeless populations.

Sonoma County has now recorded a total 822 COVID-19 cases since March.

Its case rate over the past 14 days is 40 per 100,000 population - “where it was a few weeks ago when we decided to take a pause” in reopenings, Mase said.

Mase said the updated health order makes it clear that mitigation measures for newly authorized activities are the responsibility of business owners ?and employers.

But the community also is responsible for adhering to the protocols outlined for them: maintaining proper distances, wearing face covers, observing general hygiene and using hand sanitizer.

“We’re moving from enforcement of a shelter-in-place order really toward, ‘OK, let’s get back to being out and about and doing the activities that people feel are their right and that are necessary,’ and we’re asking people then themselves to take responsibility for wearing a facial covering, for performing the general hygiene, to ensure that you have physical or social distance and that employees do follow the mandate for screening, employers screen, and that if people see that there are lapses in these kinds of mitigation measures that might affect the community, that they report that, as well.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan?@pressdemocrat.com. llahanB.