Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday reversed an earlier decision to shut down beauty salons in the city, allowing them to resume operations immediately as long as they follow the municipality’s COVID-19 guidelines.
Cheng on Tuesday last week ordered that beauty salons must close from Friday last week until Monday next week in line with a level 3 alert imposed by the central government, making Taoyuan the only local administration to shut the trade down.
Speaking on a Facebook livestream, Cheng said that the city reversed the policy to go along with the rest of the country, and beauty salons can reopen if they follow the city’s disease prevention guidelines, even though the level 3 alert has been extended to June 28.
The guidelines are identical to those elsewhere in Taiwan, with customers required to have their temperatures taken and provide contact-tracing details before entering the premises.
Visits can only be made by appointment, workers must wear masks, and disinfect their tools and the premises regularly, while no food or drink is allowed.
Meanwhile, to be in line with crowd control measures at retail facilities issued on Monday by the central government, Taoyuan allows only one customer per 3.3m2 of floor space, adjusted from one customer per 3m2 previously, Cheng said.
Taoyuan is third in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases, behind New Taipei City and Taipei amid an outbreak over the past three weeks.
Taoyuan is where locally transmitted cases were first reported in late April, with the virus entering communities after a cluster infection linked to the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel.
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