COVID-19 testing numbers have risen after the holiday season

The holiday season is over for now,but 2021 left some lasting effects

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- The holiday season is over for now, but 2021 left some lasting effects.

COVID numbers have risen again to start the new year and medical officials have seen a boost in business.

Over at Allegro Plaza in Columbus, they are relating it to numbers they saw in March of 2020; however, the staff was prepared for the worst coming out of the Christmas and New Year Break.

“We expected an uptick because anytime there’s a holiday gathering there’s going to be a mass uptick of both COVID and flu so we have been diagnosing a lot of COVIDand flu since the holidays. With COVID we just have our precautions in place and we have just continued to use those universal precautions. It is a virus it’s transmitted just like the flu is,” said Allegro Plaza president Amy Bogue.

“The omicron variant is a little more contagious so that’s probably why we’re seeing a lot of this too. As a result of the positive tests we’re seeing more of the prescriptions being given again for the COVID we also have booster shots at the pharmacy if they could get those too,” said pharmacist manager Hank Norwood.

Norwood and Bogue said that this year; flu numbers have been on the rise too and they encourage people to get the flu shots as well as the vaccine if they haven’t already.