Coronavirus Update: Small Business Owners Eager For Restrictions To Ease, 'We Need The Economy To Reopen'
FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - With the economy at a standstill, with the economy at a standstill, thousands and thousands of businesses are shuttered.
One of them is Your Child's Smile, a small pediatric dental practice in Franklin Lakes.
Owner Heather Sculthorpe was forced to close the business on March 15th, leaving her four employees out of work.
"It was very sad for us to close. Mostly because we miss each other's camaraderie, and also, obviously, the income, and servicing our patients," she said.
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The stay at home order also forced the closure of the No Limits Cafe in Middletown. The non-profit employed dozens of adults with intellectual disabilities. Owner Stephanie Cartier had to close the cafe on March 14.
"We have 36 people out of work," Cartier said.
With the economy on pause for so long, many are wondering when things will get back to normal.
The push to get there may begin with the prick of a finger. At the Union City courthouse last week, first responders began a screening process to determine who may have been exposed to coronavirus, and could now be immune.
The results are back in just five minutes, and usually cost less than $50.
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Meyer Davidoff is a pharmacist with the New Jersey-based Invictus pharmacy, which conducted the screening. He says the tests could be implemented on a larger scale by other government agencies, and even corporations, to determine which healthy people can go back on the job,.
"You're now allowing people to get back to work, to start doing what they were doing before, and just stabilizing life as we remember, as we once knew," Davidoff said.
Since traditional coronavirus testing is still unavailable to the masses, antibody screening could be crucial to helping restart the economy - a day business owners eagerly await.
"Absolutely. We need the economy to reopen. And we need it to be good. Because otherwise people won't come to restaurants to spend their money," Cartier said.
"I think it'll be good for everyone. Of course we want to make sure that it's safe. And I wouldn't want to do that until we know that it's safe," Sculthorpe said.
Some business owners say the longer they stay closed, the harder it will be to reopen. So even when the coronavirus lockdown ends, some businesses won't come back right away. Others might never reopen.