San Francisco salon owner commends mayor for delay in next stage of reopening amid COVID-19 surge

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- As San Francisco Mayor London Breed halts the next phase of the city's reopening which would've included hair salons, one local salon owner is praising the mayor for putting safety before politics.

Patrick Evan, the owner of Patrick Evan Salon in San Francisco's Union Square, is still unsure what the delay in reopening will mean, but wants people to come back to work feeling safe.

"I think London Breed is making choices that are really difficult, but I understand them," he said.

The mayor announced Friday morning that the city is pausing the plan to reopen certain businesses on Monday. The announcement affects hair salons, nail salons, tattoo parlors, outdoor bars, museums and the zoo.

The delay came as the city grapples with a 103 new COVID-19 cases reported in a single day.

Breed decided to scale back on the reopening timeline because of the surge in cases.

Earlier this week, the next stage of reopening was accelerated to June 29 from July 13 - but moved back once again with Friday's announcement.

RELATED: San Francisco pauses reopening after city sees 103 new COVID-19 cases in 1 day

In preparing to reopen, Evan said his salon was ready to check clients' temperatures upon arrival, check them in outside of the salon and minimize traffic inside the building to allow for social distancing.

The time to get the health and safety precautions in place has been a good thing, the salon owner said.

"The time has been pretty fortunate to handle all that," Evan said.

He said the salon was in the midst of creating a procedure to reach out to clients for appointments and thankfully, the delay in reopening will not affect customers' appointments.

"We want to do it safe, mindful," he said. "We haven't reached out to guests yet."

He said his salon is lucky that way.

Watch the full interview with Patrick Evan above