Coronavirus: New York barber who continued to cut hair during lockdown tests positive for virus
‘This kind of direct contact has potential to dramatically spread this virus throughout our community and beyond’
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Your support makes all the difference.A New York barber who continued to cut people's hair in violation of the state’s stay-at-home guidelines, has contracted the coronavirus.
New York state has been under a stay-at-home order since 22 March, after governor Andrew Cuomo ordered it to lockdown, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Non-essential businesses, including barbershops, were forced to close, but some areas of the state will start to re-open on Friday, if they have met public health metrics.
The Ulster County Government department of Health, announced on Wednesday, that a barber based on Broadway, in the city of Kingston, had contracted coronavirus, after they continued to cut hair during the pandemic.
They advised that anyone who saw the barber in the last three weeks should get tested for Covid-19.
Ulster County Health Commissioner Dr Carol Smith said that she was disheartened to find out that a business had been flouting coronavirus lockdown measures.
“We are taking extraordinary measures to try and minimise the spread of this dangerous disease,” she said, according to NBC News.
“Learning that a barbershop has been operating illicitly for weeks with a Covid-19 positive employee is extraordinarily disheartening.”
Ms Smith added that a barber continuing to work during the pandemic could have severe consequences for residents in the area.
“As much as we would all like to go out and get a professional haircut, this kind of direct contact has the potential to dramatically spread this virus throughout our community and beyond,” she added.
According to Google’s dedicated coronavirus page, New York state has more than 343,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 22,170 deaths.
According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1.4m people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 85,194.
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