Snohomish County businesses worry about another potential lockdown as COVID cases surge

With coronavirus cases surging in Washington for the third time, the Snohomish County Executive said it’s not impossible for another stay home order to be enacted.

Author: Eric Wilkinson

Published: 5:42 PM PST November 10, 2020

Updated: 7:37 PM PST November 10, 2020

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Snohomish County’s health officer is making “one final plea” for people to make changes to their lifestyles in order to keep stricter coronavirus regulations from going into effect.

“We don’t want to start going backwards,” said Dr. Chris Spitters.

Spitters said the next few weeks will be critical in what happens with our schools and businesses as winter sets in. 

Anna’s Furniture in Lynnwood has survived wars and recessions over the past quarter-century.

When this spring’s coronavirus lockdown went into place, the family business lost 85% of its income overnight.

There were worries the doors might close forever.

“We still needed to cover all of our expenses but with no income,” said the current owner and Anna’s son, Phong Nguyen. “It was definitely a challenge.”

RELATED: ‘Stop the gatherings:’ Washington health officials aim to slow accelerated COVID-19 transmission

Things have bounced back since the county moved into Phase 2 of Washington’s reopening plan, but with cases surging for the third time, another stay-at-home order is a very real possibility.

“I hope this doesn’t happen,” said Nguyen. “There were so many businesses shut during the beginning of this pandemic. We can’t afford to go through that again. We’ve already lost so many.”

Hospitalizations and positivity rates continue to rise across Snohomish County. Younger people are dying more often and coronavirus is once again making its way into nursing homes.

Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers said to imagine coronavirus as a car.

“If we had a dashboard, every light would be blinking red and every warning buzzer would be going off,” he explained.

If a new stay-at-home order were to be implemented, Somers said it would be much more targeted and “nuanced” than what we saw in the spring. 

Exactly what that means remains to be seen.

Somers said he’ll have a better idea in a week or two after meeting with state officials.

Once again, the concern is people wearing masks while at work but not at social events, along with the fact they’re having social events at all.

Spitters continues to ask people to stay home and only interact with people in their “bubble” as much as possible.

He says holiday events should be kept to people living in your home if we are going to see our schools and business avoid even longer closures.

Nguyen said we need to count on each other, now more than ever.

“It’s not about your small world. It’s about the bigger community,” he said. “It’s just sad seeing so many businesses shut down because of this. We don’t want to be the next one.”