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NEW YORK—National optical sales showed little change over the past week (Dec. 7-13), except for contact lens sales, which have trended in their own direction all year. Other than contact lens sales, which were down 6 index points, the other service/product categories, gross revenue and exams/refractions, were either flat or up—2 index points for lens pairs and 1 index point for frame units. All this occurred as total COVID-19 cases nationwide were up more than 10 percent, surpassing 16 million total cases, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

Regionally, optical sales varied over the past seven days (Dec. 7-13). On their own trajectory, contact lens sales were down in all four census regions, ranging from -4 index points in the Northeast to -8 index points in the West.

Most categories in most regions were either flat or up, with the South and Northeast up most consistently at rates of 1 or 2 index points in all categories except contact lenses. Other than contact lenses being down in all regions, the only other sales declines were experienced in gross revenue and exams/refractions in the Midwest and West, all down -1 index point, except gross revenue in the West, which was down -2 index points.

However, the Midwest did see an increase of 3 index points for sales of lens pairs while the South was up 2 index points in the same category. These varied results align with cases of COVID-19 as states in all regions experienced both increases as well as decreases over the past week, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The Jobson COVID-19 Practice Performance Tracker data is compiled by Jobson Research from GPN/EDGEPro and ABB Analyze data. Another element of the report illustrates Consumer Sentiments about the COVID-19 response and purchasing intentions, with data supplied by The Vision Council.

This index baseline was developed by Jobson Research from total sales from an average 7 days in the first quarter of 2019.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker