Salons across Toronto are expressing their excitement at being able to reopen their doors for appointments next month, even as a COVID-19 outbreak at a Pickering Supercuts shows the potential dangers that await.
On Friday, the provincial government announced that personal care services, including barber shops and hair and nail salons, will be allowed to open by appointment only in the “grey” lockdown zone, on April 12.
By then, these services will have been closed in the city for 140 days since Toronto entered lockdown on Nov. 23.
Ivana Bruna, salon co-ordinator at Tony Shamas Hair & Laser salon, located on the northeast corner of Jarvis and Adelaide, told the Star they’re excited to “start serving the community and get back to work again.”
Bruna expressed concern the province may “close up again” before the salon is able to open its doors as case counts continue to rise daily.
On Friday, a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at a Supercuts hair salon, at 570 Kingston Road in Pickering.
Anyone who received services from this salon between March 18 and March 21 has been advised of a “potential high-risk of exposure” to the virus.
More than 100 clients were provided with service during the period, according to the Durham Region health department.
“Once testing has been completed, you must remain home and self-isolate for 14 full days from the last day that you attended Supercuts, even if your test result is negative,” a public notification declaring the outbreak read.
The region said it’s working closely with the salon on “all potential client lists that may be available” for contact-tracing.
The health department was not yet able to provide the number of staff who tested positive.
Online vaccine bookings are available for Durham’s eligible priority populations including those 75 and older and those who will turn 75 in 2021. The region is currently in the provinces “red” control zone.
The new changes to the provinces “grey” zone come after salons in Toronto and Peel Region pushed back over lockdown measures that forbid them from opening.
Comrades Barbershop, located on Harbord St., told the Star they’re excited, not nervous, to re-open. They said this has been a challenging time for most small businesses.
“It’s a relief to be able to earn income and have some certainty during these trying times,” said Beatrice Perez, co-owner and barber. “We are looking forward to getting back to what we love and catching up with everyone, back to a sense of normalcy during such extraordinary times.”
Perez said they have followed all public health guidelines and reported no cases of the virus while they were open.
Harry Doan, salon manager at Danforth’s Rosy Nails, said the business is “feeling very happy” about today’s announcement.
“It’s been four months straight of closing for us,” Doan said. “We have been waiting for this news for a very long time.”
On Friday, the City of Toronto held a COVID-19 briefing to urge residents to get vaccinated. The briefing announced that those 70 years of age or older will be eligible for the shot starting Sat. at 8 a.m. at any of the mass vaccination clinics in Toronto.
During the briefing Toronto Mayor, John Tory said that cases of the variants are “ramping up and we see the troubling numbers.”
“But we’re also at a day when we have vaccine supply — supply we’ve been waiting for,” Tory said.
Jeff Kwong, the interim director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, told the Star that new variants of the virus, the relaxation of restrictions and “inadequate population immunity” — that is not enough people vaccinated — equals “bad news.”
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As of Friday, 436,443 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Toronto.
The province reported 2,169 news cases of the virus, Friday. This includes 682 cases in Toronto, 123 in Durham, 397 in Peel, 254 in York Region, 129 in Ottawa and 122 in Hamilton.
—with files from Akrit Michael
