The situation regarding the coronavirus is evolving rapidly. As of yesterday, some states have ordered many businesses, including tanning salons, to temporarily cease operations. If you are not currently impacted by such government mandates, you’re more than likely faced with employee and client concerns about the safety of your salon. While our circumstances will continue to evolve, it’s important to continue communicating with staff and guests and to do so with an accurate understanding of why such measures are being taken.

Most importantly, the reason we are all being encouraged to practice “social distancing” is to slow the spread of the virus – or in technical terms, “flatten the curve” that represents the number of people who contract COVID–19 over a period of time. For the vast majority of people, the coronavirus does not pose a significant risk of severe illness or death. Extra precautions are being taken primarily to avoid overwhelming the health care system and protect the people that are most vulnerable to the virus. An article published yesterday by The Hill explains the situation well:

“There is a limited number of doctors, hospitals, beds and even test kits in the United States. The nation’s health care system has a fixed capacity of the number of people it can treat per day, which is marked by a straight line on the graph. A higher curve would likely exceed that capacity, meaning that people would be left waiting for days to be seen and treated by medical professionals. The flatter the curve, the more likely it is to fall under that maximum capacity, allowing each patient access to the resources they need.”

Click here to read the entire article, for a more complete understanding of what “flattening the curve” means.

If you are able and choose to remain open at this time, it’s important to communicate openly and effectively with both your employees and your clients. If your employees are apprehensive about coming to work right now, the above information about the reasons for preventative actions might help ease their concerns. If they don’t already, they should understand that the majority of people who become infected with the coronavirus are expected to be asymptomatic or recover without needing special treatment. Only older people and those with serious medical conditions have a greater risk of becoming seriously ill. If you do have employees who are at higher risk, please do consider asking them to stay home for their own safety, and remind all employees that it’s advisable for everyone to avoid contact with at-risk individuals outside of work.

You can also remind clients that you are taking extra precautions to reduce any risk of exposure in your establishment, and assure them that you will monitor developments and follow any forthcoming recommendations from government and health officials, in order to protect their wellbeing.