A man has his hair cut at a barbershop in Beijing, on Feb 24, 2020. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily] 

Beijing authorities have taken proactive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at hair and beauty salons after an outbreak in Xinfadi, an agricultural wholesale market in the city, according to an official.

The Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau has revised the guidelines for hair and beauty salons during the epidemic to protect themselves and customers from getting infected, Wang Hongcun, an official of the bureau, said at a daily news briefing held in Beijing on Saturday.

These guidelines include temperature checks before entering the salons, wearing masks all the time, disinfection after every customer leaves and making customers maintain a distance of at least 1.5 meters from each other, he said.

"Tools at hair salons, such as scissors, combs and towels should be strictly disinfected before the use on each customer," Wang stressed.

According to Wang, to ensure people's health and safety, a total of 10,765 hair and beauty salons in the city were inspected as of Friday midnight. In the meantime, 26,286 people working in these stores took the nucleic acid tests. Of them, 12,350 have received their results, all being negative.