NEW YORK—Optical sales throughout the U.S. declined over the course of last week (Oct. 26-Nov. 1) as COVID-19 cases continued increasing throughout the country. Most service/product categories declined by 1 index point in the gross revenue, exams/refractions, frame units and lens pairs categories, while the contact lens category was down by 2 index points. Regionally, optical sales in the four Census regions being tracked were somewhat varied. The Northeast was the only region to experience any increase in optical sales, at rates of 2 index points for lens pairs and 1 index point for frame units.

The South had the largest declines of -3 index points across the board for all service/product categories. This optical sales activity coincided with the Northeast having the smallest number of states (six) reporting increases of COVID-19 cases and the South having the largest number (13 states), according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The West, which had nine states reporting increasing COVID-19 cases, also experienced declines of -2 index points for lens pairs and -1 index point for frame units. Contact lens sales declined at rates of -2 or -3 index points across all regions except the West, where it increased by 1 index point.

The Jobson COVID-19 Practice Performance Tracker data is compiled by Jobson Research from GPN 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