Melannie Guevara said she started her micro business — The Deckk — after being laid off when the pandemic started.
“I had two jobs at the time,” she said. “I lost my restaurant job.”
Now that the positivity rate is edging back up with the spread of the omicron variant, there’s a new pivot to digital sales.
“If I can’t put up a store somewhere, I made my own website about a month ago because I was like ‘That’s very possible it could happen again with all these variants,’” Guevara said.
Rose Jean of T-Shirt Mayhem Corp said she too is adapting to an e-commerce strategy.
“I made that pivot now,” she said. “I understand if it ever do come back, I have a strategy.”
Rising cases also includes the University of Miami.
“We anticipate that exposure to COVID cases over the longer winter break will be even more substantial,” said Dr. Julio Frenk, president of the University of Miami.
Scientists believe omicron is more transmissible. Some hospital groups are already reporting an increase in COVID-positive patients.
Baptist Health is up by 30% over last week, while Jackson Health is up 92%.
“Even if it’s a little less severe, you’re going to have a lot of people in the hospital,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said to CNN.
Amid holiday travel plans and anticipated family gatherings, medical experts recommend full vaccination and boosters for those eligible.
Other best practices in case mitigation include using masks indoors and spending time outdoors, like the Mejia family did on Saturday evening.
“I am still going to be cautious,” said Claudia Mejia, a mother of two. “My family is all vaccinated but we will still need to be cautious, to include who you have around.”