Monterey County to allow reopening of expanded personal care services

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) Monterey County officials confirmed Tuesday that expanded personal care services will be allowed to reopen starting Friday.

Last Friday, the State of California released guidance for expanded personal services and gave counties approval to start reopening them.

Businesses allowed to reopen will include nail salons, estheticians, skin care, cosmetology, electrology, microblading, waxing, body art, tattoo parlors, body piercing shops and massage therapy.

San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties are also allowing the businesses to reopen.

There are four major indicators that the Monterey County Health Department weighs before allowing businesses to reopen.

County health officials said the county has not exceeded thresholds for maintaining hospital surge capacity or thresholds for maintaining the ability to protect residents at high risk for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 incidence rate is in the red zone when it comes to the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 incidence per 100,000 population and overall test positivity rate for the past 7 days.

According to the county, because more people are being tested, the health department expects the incidence of COVID-19, which is tracked with the 14-day cumulative incidence rate and the 7-day positivity rate, may rise occasionally.

Read the guidance for expanded personal services here.

Monterey County's monitoring metrics are as follows as of June 15: