Dallas County limits toilet paper purchases, orders salons closed as coronavirus spreads
Plan to put off your French manicures, perms and piercings. And don’t plan on hoarding toilet paper next time it becomes available.
Dallas County authorities on Saturday expanded the types of businesses that must close under a public health disaster declaration and put limits on the amount of toilet paper shoppers can buy.
Beauty shops were a focus of the order, meant to limit new COVID-19 coronavirus cases, that takes effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday and continues until April 3. The closures ordered by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins are similar to restrictions that were announced Saturday for Tarrant County businesses.
Nail and hair salons, barbershops, beauty salons, hair removal services, spas, tattoo and piercing parlors were shuttered.
Elective medical, surgical and dental procedures were banned.
Under the revised disaster declaration, teeth whitening is prohibited, for example, but treating a tooth abscess is not.
Twenty-one new coronavirus cases were added Saturday in Dallas County, officials said. Ninety-five people in the county have the virus. About 40% of the cases were due to community transmission, Jenkins said.
Toilet paper sales limits, which had previously been introduced by some businesses, were made compulsory by the county order.
Sales of toilet paper were limited to 12 rolls or one package per purchase, whichever is greater. The rule will be in effect “until the supply chain meets the demand or two weeks, whichever comes first.”
The scarcity of the bathroom product was not a result of inadequate supply, Jenkins said a Saturday evening news conference.
“Folks, we are the problem with the toilet paper,” he said, suggesting that shoppers have been buying more than they needed.
After announcing the TP edict, Jenkins said that if people must use an alternative such as tissues, they should not flush it to avoid clogging pipes.
Dispose of it in “some way other than flushing,” he said.
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 7:33 PM.
