A nail technician said she recently received a text message from a client after their manicure appointment where they said they had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I feel really bad and should not have shown up for my appointment but I desperately needed my nails done!” the client wrote, according to messages the technician, called Taylor, shared on Instagram.
“I tested positive for the virus two days ago soooooo please quarantine yourself,” the customer added.
Taylor lives in a state where customers going for beauty treatments such as manicures “must self-screen for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 before arriving at the service provider location.”
Taylor is also immuno-compromised, which she said the client already knew. She responded to the client saying she legally wasn’t supposed to take the appointment if there was a chance they were infected with the coronavirus.
“I asked you before you even got here if you had been exposed to the virus and if you have had it at any point,” Taylor said.
The client replied, saying they were “just desperate to get out of the house.”
“I was quarantine in two days I’m sorry!” they said. “I needed my nails done sooooooo bad! You saw how bad they were!”
Taylor has been overwhelmed by the reaction to the text messages, which she originally shared in a Facebook post and subsequently Instagram after it was taken down.
“I can’t believe how this literally has spread across this world like wildfire,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Let’s protect ourselves and each other. If there is anything I have learned in the last 24 hours, there may be a handful of unthoughtful people like this ex client who did this to me yesterday, but this world is a beautiful place with a whole lot of people in it willing to do what’s right.”
She urged everyone to “keep on being good to others” and to “kick this virus outta here.”
“For everyone who keeps commenting, she HAS been reported,” Taylor added. “I cannot keep up with all the comments on Facebook and here with everyone saying that. Thank you!”
Taylor told Allure that both she and the client were wearing masks during the appointment, but she has now had to quarantine herself for two weeks as a precaution.
“It was very distressing to receive those messages,” she said. “It is alarming to think there are people who don’t take other people’s safety seriously.
“My first concern is the safety of my clients, family members, and friends — first and foremost.”