Coronavirus triggers Springfield to recommend closure of barbershops, salons, tattoo shops, massage parlors - MassLive.com

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SPRINGFIELD — City officials are recommending the voluntary closure of all barbershops, hair and nail salons, tattoo shops, piercing studios, spas and massage parlors to further protect the public from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Helen R. Caulton-Harris, the city’s commissioner of public health and human services, and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno issued the recommendation in a statement Thursday.

The city is "asking that certain venues take the precautionary measures needed during these public health emergency times by voluntarily discontinuing services,” Sarno said in a statement. The closures would help meet state and federal recommendations for people to remain six feet apart to help stop the spread of the virus.

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The recommendation follows the mandatory shutdown of restaurant dining areas, schools and daycare centers statewide.

Caulton-Harris said keeping the six-foot distance is not realistic between the workers and customers in such shops.

Sarno met with his department heads including Caulton-Harris on Thursday to continue discussion of coronavirus precautions.

The mayor said it pained him to encourage the shops to suspend their businesses.

“I do not ask this lightly, as my late father Alfonso Sarno was a barber,” Sarno said. “Í want the city of Springfield to do our very best to stay ahead of this growing concern to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.”

It is quite possible the state will consider mandating the shutdown of such shops, Sarno said.

“Again, I ask this out of an abundance of caution and in the name of public health and safety," Sarno said, adding that residents must take the public health emergency seriously. “As my administration has done before with prior natural and manmade disasters and just as important — we will get through this together and for the better as one.”

As health commissioner, Caulton-Harris said, she has broad powers to enforce health mandates under the caronavirus pandemic. Her department is enforcing the closing of public dining areas, she said.

Caulton-Harris said the city has received strong cooperation from restaurants and restaurant-bars that have closed their indoor dining areas for the mandatory three-week period.

The city’s website, springfield-ma.gov, is providing updated information about the coronavirus response.

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