Missouri hairstylist may have exposed 91 people
to Covid-19, officials say
Stylist worked at a salon on eight different days
while experiencing symptoms after governor allowed businesses to reopen
Lois
Beckett
@loisbeckett
Published
onSat 23 May 2020 17.20 BST
A Missouri
hairstylist may have exposed 91 customers and coworkers to coronavirus, public
health officials said, after the state’s governor allowed businesses including
salons to reopen on 4 May.
The stylist
who tested positive for Covid-19 worked at a salon in Springfield on eight
different days while experiencing coronavirus symptoms.
Because the
stylist and the customers wore face coverings, health officials said on Friday,
they hoped the interactions would lead to “no additional cases”. Those
potentially exposed would be contacted and offered testing, officials said.
The
potential exposures started little more than a week after Missouri allowed
salons to reopen.
The push by
Donald Trump and some state governors to reopen most businesses with some
public health modifications, such as social distancing and masks, comes as
public health officials warn that relaxing restrictions will certainly lead to
new outbreaks.
Dr Anthony
Fauci, a member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, said on Friday that
new local outbreaks were “inevitable” as prevention measures are loosened.
But on
Thursday, at a visit to a Ford automobile plant in Michigan, the president once
again emphasized his focus on getting the economy moving, and the stock market
recovered, as soon as possible.
“A
permanent lockdown is not a strategy for a health state or a healthy country,”
Trump said on Thursday. “Our country wasn’t meant to be shut down.
“This
country is poised for an epic comeback,” he said. “Just watch. It’s already
happening.”
As of
Saturday morning, according to figures collected by Johns Hopkins University,
more than 1.6m cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the US, with more than
96,000 deaths.
In debates
over how quickly to reopen different businesses across the country, barbershops
and hair salons have become a political flashpoint among conservative
Americans, with some owners reopening in defiance of public health measures.
In
Michigan, a barber who refused to close his shop despite shelter-at-home orders
staged a hair-cutting protest at the state capitol which he dubbed “Operation
Haircut”, the Lansing State Journal reported.
In Texas, a
hair salon owner who was briefly jailed after keeping her business open in
defiance of public health orders, and who then refused to apologize in court
for what she had done, has been championed by Republican leaders. The Texas
senator Ted Cruz visited her salon for a haircut.
In
Missouri, county health officials said local residents who had been in the same
location as the hairstylist with coronavirus but who had not had direct contact
were “believed to be at very low risk”.
While
infectious, the same individual also visited a Walmart and a Dairy Queen and
made three visits to a local gym, they said.
Missouri’s
governor, Michael Parson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on whether the potential exposures of 91 people at a hair salon would alter the
state’s thinking on whether salons and barbershops should remain open during
the pandemic.
Missouri’s
current public health guidance will expire on 31 May. The state has said it
will re-evaluate the plan and may tighten some restrictions or loosen others.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário