30,000 people die from the flu every year and health officials fear the H1N1 Virus has the potential to cause more deaths than that and cause tens of thousands to be sick.
With thousands of people becoming sick, it could put a major strain on the work force, which in turn could affect the products and services you buy.
It is the ending of a normal lunch hour at The Skillet Restaurant in Spartanburg. The workers here are thinking about finishing their shift, not the dreaded H1N1 Virus.
But officials with the Centers for Disease Control feel otherwise. They feel employers should be making plans for flu season. A member of the CDC tells News Channel 7 H1N1 could cause 30 to 40 percent of a business's workforce to call in sick.
The only plan the owners of The Skillet have is: “If you're sick, don't come to work. That's it.”
Kelli Sapounas and her husband have 7 employees, so when someone’s sick they have to work extra hours.
While they don’t have a plan in place, the Spartanburg Regional Health System does. They’ve been planning on a flu outbreak since 2005 and the Avian Flu scare.
If need be, critical staff would be in place and auxiliary staff could work from home if they felt sick.
“The impact has to be minimal on our business. It's still a business and we still have to meet the bottom line and make sure we can take care of the sick and injured and make ends meet at the end of the day,” says Jeff Straub, the Emergency Manager of the health system.
Although health officials want people to be cautious, Kelli says she's not going to worry until the time comes.
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