When it comes to getting sick with COVID-19, you might be thinking about this, and we have too. Ann Schneider asked, "What’s the risk of getting a pedicure and brows groomed?"
We asked the experts: Dr. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Cleveland Clinic; Katie Cary, vice president of infection prevention for HCA Continental Division; and Dr. Irfan N. Hafiz, infectious disease physician and Northwest Region chief medical officer at Northwestern Medicine.
Their take: The risk of contracting COVID-19 from getting a pedicure and brows groomed is medium.
"If you're going to have somebody waxing your eyebrows and they're going to be right near your face, that would be very important that you're masked. And then also the person who is waxing your eyebrows is also masked and wearing a face shield. I would say it would definitely be lower for the pedicure, because there you're not going to have somebody right in your face. But you also have to look at the salon as a whole. Are people crammed together? Are they appropriately spaced? Because really your risk is not only the person that is working with you on the salon service. It would also be how close are you to your neighbor as they're also getting something done in the salon," Cary said.
"Limiting the number of clients that are coming in. Probably by appointment only. So we don't have a lot of people in the waiting area there. And also, ... leaving every other chair open just to give that extra amount of distance there. And as long as everyone's wearing masks, you definitely can safely do that," Hafiz said.
"If you're in a crowded area where there's a lot of people lined up next to one another, then that could be a lot higher risk. Things like barriers, as well as mandating masks by employees to help reduce the risk. And so that may help. But again, you're talking about you may be going into an enclosed space where there may be multiple people in the room. I would say at least that's that's a medium risk, but it can't be minimized with some of those strategies," Esper said.
If you have a question about your risk, send us a video to whatstherisk@newsy.com. You can see answers to other questions here.
