Personal care businesses such as hair and nail salons must remain closed for the next month, according to a new executive order from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
The order, published and signed by Lee on Tuesday, offers guidance for businesses deemed safe to open, but also mandates the closure of businesses including those that “perform close-contact personal services.”
According to Executive Order 30, those business include:
Barber shops
Hair salons
Waxing salons
Threading salons
Nail salons/spas
Spas providing body treatments
Body-art facilities/tattoo services
Tanning salons
Massage therapy establishments/massage services
The order also mandates that entertainment, recreational and certain other gathering venues will remain closed to the public including:
Bowling alleys
Arcades
Concert Venues
Theaters, auditoriums, performing arts centers
Racetracks
Indoor children’s play areas
Adult entertainment venues
Amusement parks
Senior Centers or equivalent facilities
Roller and ice-skating rinks
Certain venues such as bars, night clubs, and live performance venues that serve food by following established guidelines from the state, according to the order.
Social gatherings of 10 or more people are still banned, according to the order, as are visits to nursing homes, retirement homes and other long-term care facilities.
The order doesn’t mandate the closure of places of worship or prohibit weddings or funerals, but “strongly encourages” places of worship to follow guidelines from the governor’s office to conduct in-person services safely.
Take-out alcohol sales from restaurants are still permitted with the purchase of food, the order notes in paragraph 12.
Paragraph 13 of the order states that six counties in the state with its own health department – which includes Madison County – may issue additional orders that may greater restrict or permit the operation of businesses, organizations or venues, but bars municipalities from regulating places of worship.
“We can deviate from that if it comes from the health department,” said Jimmy Harris, Mayor of Madison County, “If we want something changed – it has to come from the health department.”
Lee’s former executive order mandating the closure of businesses will expire at 11:59 p.m., Wednesday.
In his press conference on Tuesday, he told reporters that he would release a new executive order addressing the businesses that would remain closed, but didn’t give any further details during the conference.
– Executive Order No. 30
– The Tennessee Pledge: Exercise Facility Guidance
– Stimulus Accountability & Care for the Uninsured
The executive order is in effect until May 29, though it notes “it is anticipated that in the near future development of additional business guidelines will allow for reopening additional businesses safely,” and that the order will be amended accordingly.
