BACK IN BUSINESS
CAFES AND SALONS OPEN AGAIN AS REGION REPORTS NO NEW COVID DEATHS
Renfrewshire was back in business yesterday as hairdressers, cafes and pubs all opened their doors while health chiefs revealed no new Covid- 19 deaths have been recorded in the past week.
In the biggest step out of lockdown so far, people flocked to get their hair cut, have a pint inside a bar and enjoy a bite to eat indoors.
Co-owner of Taste Buds
Cafe in Lawn Street in Paisley, Elaine Templeton, said it was lovely to welcome back sit-in customers again.
She said: “We’ve been running a takeaway service for the last seven weeks and have been checking the guidelines daily because they’re always changing.
“We’ve been getting ourselves ready for opening and making sure our team are fully trained and ready for everything.
“Customers have to wear a mask when the come in and keep it on until their order has been taken to keep our staff safe.
“We’ve heard from a lot of customers who are desperate to come back in.
“This is a nice milestone to reach.”
In nearby Gauze Street, salon manager Stephanie Thomson of Kaoss Hair revealed she is fully booked until next month with a waiting list for cancellations already.
She added: “We’ve had a lot of people walk in to try and book appointments and we’ve had to tell them they can’t come in and need to book online.
“Normally on a Saturday I could have up to four clients at a time but now we can only do one client per stylist so there are less people in the salon.
“We’ve got the place spotless. We started to order PPE about three weeks into lockdown, we knew we were going to need it.
“We’ve been ready to open for about four weeks, we were just waiting on the date.
“It definitely feels good to be back. Obviously it’s a bit strange but it’s a new normal. It’s great to be back into some sort of routine and we’ll all get used to it eventually.
“We kept in touch with our clients via social media and had a list of over 120 people wanting appointments.
“Everyone has been very understanding about having to wait for an appointment.
“They’ve waited this long, what’s another few weeks? They’re just happy to know they’re getting their hair done.”
At Johnstone Coffee Co, owner Tony Marshall said his regulars were delighted they were open again.
He said: “People are really happy to have a little bit of normality again.
“We’ve had a lot of regulars in and we think the weekend will probably be back to normal trade. We’ve extended our opening ours and our takeaway side of things.
“We’ve been able to take back all the staff off furlough who wanted to come back and have also hired some new members of staff as well.”
Meanwhile the latest government statistics showed there were no deaths from Covid-19 in Renfrewshire in the last week.
206 people from Renfrewshire have now died from the virus since the National Records of Scotland started noting the deaths from March 16.
This week is the first time there have been no fatalities in the local authority area.
There was one late reported death last week from a care home.