More business owners plan to open their doors for the first time in more than a month. But these new plans come with growing concerns.
Is it necessary or is it too soon? We spoke with some business owners to get a better idea of what reopening Texas will look like here in Southeast Texas.
Right now, wedding venues and services are back up and running.
Barber shops, nail salons and tanning salons will be able to reopen on Friday as well.
On May 18, gyms, office buildings and non-essential manufacturing can open with a few exceptions.
On Friday, May 8, Gov. Greg Abbott will allow more businesses to reopen.
Places like Ebony Jenkins’ Celebrity Experience Salon can reopen with stipulations such as a maximum of 25 percent capacity.
Salon chairs must be 6 feet apart, and there can only be one customer per stylist during an appointment. Masks are also recommended while services are provided.
“I'm only taking clients every two hours, so my day will be only five,” Jenkins said.
These are guidelines many salons were already preparing for.
“They know that I'm going to use my best judgment and that everything is going to be really really clean,” Jenkins said.
But are we jumping the gun? Dr. Ray Callas, a Southeast Texas physician and business owner, understands both sides.
"We have to open up from an economy standpoint. We also have to open up to allow people to start getting jobs back,” Callas said.
It's alarming how rapidly our unemployment rate continues to increase, he said.
"With that being said, then I throw on my physician hat, and I start to get concerned,” Callas said. “The more we reopen the more lax we get, we feel we are going to see an increase in the number of cases due to the lax in social distancing."
Dr. Callas said the biggest challenge when it comes to businesses reopening will be social distancing and sanitizing.
"We have to socially distance, but we also have to respect these owners," Callas said.
But he stresses the importance of the basics such as hand washing, staying 6 feet away from others and wearing a mask in public.
"I just want to put it out there that this disease does kill people,” Callas said. “We've had a lot of deaths here in Southeast Texas but more importantly we can't live inside of an isolation bubble. If we do that, then the economy will completely implode. It is just a vicious cycle."
