After several restrictions were lifted, it seems that life is returning to Gyumri. Despite the fact that public transportation is not operating and today was a cold, rainy day in Gyumri, there were many people in the city center. This is not referring to the large crowds of people congregated around banks with the police present during the state of emergency; instead, this is about referring to citizens walking, going to cafes, stores, and beauty salons.
There were many people at the cafes in Gyumri’s city center. It was clear that people missed going out. There were lots of people and employees at beauty salons were doing everything they could to avoid large crowds of people from gathering. For example, people working at a beauty salon on Gyumri’s Ryzhkov street told Aravot Daily that they tell customers to avoid coming to the salon with friends and relatives.
“We are doing everything we can to work as safely as possible. We are scheduling customers’ appointments a few at a time, and are mainly scheduling those who have expressed the desire to come a while ago. When we talk to customers on the phone, we warn them to come alone so that we can uphold social distancing and so that we can avoid having too many people gathered in one room. They should come alone so that we can relax. When a customer comes to the salon without a mask and gloves, we give some to them because it is required to wear them. We have our sanitizing products and as soon as people enter the salon, we check their temperature. It is obviously impossible for a hairstylist to uphold social distancing, but we must adhere to hygienic norms. When we schedule customers, we do so 1.5 hours apart instead of a half hour or an hour apart. Of course, this is exhausting for us, but we are working safely like this. The reason is so that, when we’re finished serving our customers, we will have 15-20 minutes to clean chairs, tables, and especially door handles,” Araksya Hurikhanyan, an employee at a hair salon, said.
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However, despite the fact that there are a lot of people at Gyumri’s cafes, it’s clear that business owners will face huge losses due to the fact that there are no tourists. The city had become more lively as a result of tourism development.
Nune Arevshatyan
