By Gregory B. Hladky and Mark Pazniokas
Retailers, hair cutters, offices and other businesses shuttered in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic are about to get detailed guidance on changes they must make before reopening on May 20, the first steps toward what state officials warned today would be a slow economic recovery.
Gov. Ned Lamont and his advisers outlined some of the granular details about what the new normal will look like in Connecticut hair salons and stores on the same day that the U.S. Department of Labor reported the loss of more than 20 million jobs in April, pushing the U.S. jobless rate to nearly 15 percent.
David Lehman, the state’s commissioner of economic and community development, said he had no immediate estimate on what the May 20 openings might do to improve employment in Connecticut, where more than 400,000 jobs were lost in the instant recession caused by COVID-19 closure orders.
“My expectation is that it’s going to happen very slowly,” Lehman said.
Lamont said consumer behavior is influenced, not controlled, by state policy. He noted that many businesses closed before he issued his orders.
“That’s because consumers didn’t feel confident, and stores didn’t feel confident,” he said.
Based on the experience of southern states that have lifted restrictions, not everyone who can reopen will do so immediately, Lehman said.
The commissioner said more than 45 pages of written guidance would be published tonight or over the weekend, giving employers their first look at how their businesses and operations would be changing.
The guidelines were produced in consultation with industry groups, organized labor and representatives of OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Lehman said that May 20 would not look unlike May 19: Cloth masks still will be required in public and in all work spaces, except private offices; and workers who are 65 or older or have medical risk factors should plan on staying at home for the foreseeable future.
Workers at risk of COVID-19 complications should still be eligible for jobless benefits, even if they are called back to work and decline, Lamont said. But the governor was unsure if there was written guidance on who could refuse to return to work.
“If there are not now, there will be,” Lamont said.
Nail salons will remain closed beyond May 20, a reflection of divisions in the industry about the safety of resuming a business that requires the worker and customer to face each other within arms’ length. Opening immediately would have required the installation of Plexiglas partitions through which customers would extend their hands.
Customers of barber shops and hair salons will be served by appointment only to prevent crowds from congregating. Conversations should be limited on the theory that speaking in close quarters also is a risk of spreading the virus, even when wearing masks.
And the use of blow dryers will be banned, a crimp on styling.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who has been one of the administration’s liaisons to small businesses, wryly observed the plus side: “Hey, you can color, and there’s a lot of us that would really like that part.”
The rules for retailers will be familiar to anyone who has been food shopping since Lamont ordered the closure of nonessential businesses: cloth masks must be worn to enter a store, social distancing rules must be followed, and methods of payment must be noncontact. Expect to see more Plexiglas partitions at check outs.
Lamont is signing an executive order permitting restaurants with liquor licenses to serve alcohol at outdoor seating, though local approval still would be required. The executive order would allow an expedited process for local approval.
The governor previously said only outdoor seating would be initially allowed. Lehman said restaurants were being treated differently than stores for two reasons: One cannot eat wearing a mask, and diners linger in restaurants, increasing the time of exposure to others.
Companies will be expected to have no more than 50 percent of the workforce back in the office, a nudge to businesses to consider telework a permanent feature of office life. The bane of many an American worker — the endless meeting — also will be discouraged. Under the new rules of the road, no in-person meeting can have more than five participants.
