Missouri hairstylist may have exposed 91 people to Covid-19, officials say
23rd May 2020
Stylist worked at a salon on eight different days while experiencing symptoms after governor allowed businesses to reopen
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.
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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.
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.”
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.