Businesses struggle to fully staff as COVID cases surge
By Spencer Wilson
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FRISCO, Colorado (KCNC) — According to the Centers for Disease Control, Summit County is among those locations where COVID-19 is spreading more quickly than others.
The latest recorded data includes a test positivity rate of nearly 35%. That is reflected in the shops around Frisco, suffering staffing woes while their team either recovers from or waits out test results on COVID.
“We had several people out sick, so I worked three weeks straight and that was 10-12 hour days,” Lisa Holenko, co-owner of Next Page Books told CBS4.
“They were long and that put me out of commission, I got sick right after Christmas and then I was out for a week-and-a-half.”
At some points, she had to close up the shop during one of their most profitable times, with tourists flooding in from all over. Still, Holenko said keeping their mask mandate and enforcing it is just doing their part to help stop the massive spread the county is seeing.
Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue said it was an easy decision to place that mask mandate back in for indoor areas as case rates spiked.
“We already had a workforce shortage because of our housing crisis. so it does feel a bit like all of these things are coming together at the worst time for our community and you throw omicron into the mix and we are struggling.”
For now, Holenko said she is just thankful to have some backup when it comes to enforcing the mask mandate, as her store enforced it even before the county’s decision.
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