Small business owners in Marin County protest latest stay-at-home order

OAKLAND, Calif. - The latest lock down has many small business owners worried about their finances and frustrated with health officials.

Hair salon owners in Marin County protested Thursday, demanding the county allow them to reopen.

One of them was Maya Webb, owner of Hendrix, a color salon in Corte Madera.

Webb is a single mother with two kids in college, now with no money coming in.

"To be closed six months out of the year and only open at half capacity, it's just devastating," Webb says.

Under a stay-at-home lockdown, all hair salons are closed along with outdoor and indoor dining.

Webb says it's unfair. She says she went above and beyond all health protocols to keep her shop as safe as possible from COVID-19 infection.

"We were put in with restaurants where they are allowed to do take-out. We don't have an option like that. I would like the county to reconsider letting us open inside once they've seen all the protocols that we are following. Or at least an outside option," Webb says.

Webb was one of dozens of salon owners and stylists who protested in front of the Marin County Public Health offices demanding health officials allow them to reopen.

"This is not fair. It does not make sense and it is killing small business," said one owner.

But county health officials, while sympathetic, say they are between a rock and a hard place.

COVID-19 infection rates and hospitalizations are skyrocketing. Health officials say they have to limit human interactions. That includes haircuts.

"It's an interaction between two people that's happening in close proximity over a longer period of time. And the risk of infection increases the longer you are together and the closer you are together," says Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County Health Officer.

The lockdown is scheduled to end January 4th. 

But health officials could easily extend it, If the COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations are still bad by then.