NEW YORK—U.S. optical sales continued their nationwide resurgence last week (Jan. 4-10) following the New Year and Christmas holidays. All categories, except exams/refractions, surged to numbers well above even pre-Thanksgiving levels. In fact, all categories, except exams/refractions, returned to sales rates comparable to pre-pandemic levels, and were even higher in the case of contact lenses, according to the latest Jobson Practice Performance Tracker. Regionally, the Northeast and Midwest showed the strongest growth in optical sales last week when compared with the South and West.

This reverses regional optical sales over the past few weeks when sales growth in the Northeast lagged behind the other regions. Even with last week’s resurgence, however, the Northeast remains behind all other regions in all categories.

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