With Free Testing Sites Backlogged For Weeks, Some Personal Care Workers Can’t Go Back To Work

Employees at some salons and barbershops are still trying to meet the COVID-19 testing requirements because testing locations are booked full for weeks.

Chantal Corriveau, an esthetician who does skin treatments in a salon on Broad Street, can’t get back to work because she can’t find an asymptomatic testing site that isn’t completely booked.

“We are all scrambling now and I know we can’t be alone in trying to find testing. I spent hours on the phone yesterday trying to find a test … For us we are reliant on the free test as our industry has been hit hard and we don’t want to be paying 150 dollars every week to get a test in order to work,” said Corriveau. “I feel like we’re taking away from the general community and we really need the state and the county to work together. As far is if we’re going to be in the orange zone and this is what’s mandated for us, if we need this testing done weekly that they please provide it for us.”

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo made an announcement last week saying that employees like the ones who work in personal care positions, must get tested weekly to start open.

“Gyms and salons as you also see they are not a problem that they were. We have restrictions. The restrictions made a difference. We’re going to allow them to operate in orange zones with reduce capacity and additional testing.”

Source:
RochesterFirst.com