Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance today for resuming personal services and professional services for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 recovery plan laid out last week.
Through the Washington "Safe Start" plan, more businesses and activities will re-open in subsequent phases with adequate safety and health standards in place. Each phase will be at least three weeks — metrics and data will guide when the state can move from one phase to another.
Through the Safe Start approach, counties with a population of less than 75,000 that have not had a new case of COVID-19 in the past three weeks can apply for a variance to move to Phase 2 of “Safe Start” before other parts of the state. County variance applications will be approved or denied by the secretary of the Department of Health. Eight counties have received the variance.
For counties granted variance to move to Phase 2, personal services may resume, effective May 13.
"For purposes of this memorandum, 'personal services' includes cosmetologists, hairstylists, barbers, estheticians, master estheticians, manicurists, nail salon workers, electrologists, permanent makeup artists, tattoo artists, cosmetology schools, and esthetics school," the guidance states.
Guidance documents:
Inslee also released guidance today regarding the operation of professional services, effective May 13.
"A professional service provider is defined as an office-based occupation that typically serves a client base. This includes but is not limited to: accountants, architects, attorneys, engineers, financial advisors, information technologists, insurance agents, tax preparers, and other professional service occupations," the guidance states.
Guidance documents: