Renewed Excitement As Personal Service Businesses Reopen In Philadelphia, But Concern Grows Over Rise In COVID-19 Cases

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The City of Philadelphia hits a bump in the road to recovery as the suburbs go green and some businesses begin to reopen. Health officials say a second wave of COVID-19 has started in Philadelphia.

There is renewed excitement in the city as Philadelphia moves into the least restrictive green phase of reopening. Nail salons, barber shops and hair salons finally reopened Friday after being abruptly shuttered in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The salon had to be thoroughly cleaned," Tameka Crawford, a hairstylist, said. "We have a temperature gun where we're checking temperatures as you come in. We have sanitizer at each station, cleaning supplies. We even have outside seating too, so we're ready."

Clients welcomed a trip back to Giovanni and Pileggi in Center City with new safety protocols in place. Mandatory masks, temperature checks and glass dividers have become the new norm.

"As much as we would like to say this epidemic is over, it's clearly not," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said.

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Despite the recent reopenings, city health officials are still seeing a rise in positive COVID-19 cases, especially in community settings. With more than 100 new cases per day in Philadelphia, the full green phase reopening scheduled for next week may be put on pause.

"Given the numbers that we have right now, we are not meeting our target for reopening next Friday," Farley said. "We want to not have a big second wave of coronavirus infection in Philadelphia so any reopening we want to do safely."

Health officials say teams will be monitoring businesses making sure they're complying with safety standards.

"When we go into restaurants, we are going to be observing mask use as well as the other safety features that you're supposed to be doing," Farley said, "and we will be giving very direct feedback to restaurants. Much of this takes place at places where we don't have inspectors there, so we're really pleading with business owners to take this seriously. In the end, it's not going to serve anybody well if people don't follow the safety guidelines."