ATLANTA — Businesses across metro Atlanta are feeling the impact of surging COVID-19 infections as Georgia set pandemic records for new cases back-to-back last week.
The unprecedented numbers are forcing restaurants to adapt yet again.
Brianna Borin with Snooze, an A.M. Eatery told 11Alive she thinks this surge is far worse than any others her team has dealt with.
"Partially due to it falling directly on the holidays, but also, really just how contagious omicron is proving to be," Borin, Senior VP of People and Culture for the restaurant group, explained. "It is really difficult to working in an essential business or in a central role very close to other people."
According to Borin, COVID-19 cases and exposure have taken away around half of their staff on a daily basis.
"We pride ourselves on great service and creating a breakfast party that people can enjoy," she said. "And when you're working with half of what you're normally used to, it makes it challenging to provide the guest experience that we really want to."
Like many restaurants, Snooze has had to limit dining options and even temporarily close locations at times in order to combine staff from multiple restaurants and keep serving guests.
Their experience is hardly isolated. Giving Kitchen, which provides emergency assistance to food service workers, is seeing an increase in requests for financial help, according to Jen Hidinger-Kendrick, Co-founder and Senior Director of Community Engagement for the nonprofit. She said around 75% of the asks for help over the past two weeks have been COVID-19 related.
Restaurants, meanwhile, turned to social media to keep guests updated on changes.
While some restaurants like Snooze offer closure pay to employees or other types of financial support, Borin said the timing of omicron is particularly difficult.
"It's hard you know," Borin said. "It's also the busiest time in the restaurant business where a lot of people make their their income for the month of December and January."