SUMTER, S.C. — Many of the businesses considered non-essential, like hair salons and bowling alleys, that have been forced to close their doors due to COVID-19 are now working to figure out the future.
Ronald Moses, Jr. runs Kingdom Kutz, a barbershop in Sumter.
"With the barbershop, that's my whole life. That's how I pay my rent on my shop, my utilities ...That's how I make my bread and butter," Moses said.
Now, he's praying for a solution and looking to the government for help.
"I head they was doing all these different services, so I just wanted to see where we fall," Moses said.
Miss Libby's School of Dance is Sumter has now gone virtual, choosing to offer digital classes as a way to connect with students.
"It's so hard to be surrounded by kids, and energy and fun all day long and then to go cold turkey and not see anybody at all," Jennifer Reimer said. " It has just been a crazy change."
It's a shift in operations they're hoping won't last long.
"We hate to say the word cancel, so we're just pushing it back and trying to postpone everything," Reimer said.
The Sumter Speedway can draw crowds of more than a thousand, but now their stands are left empty.
"The coronavirus has completely shut us down, which is very detrimental," Sissy McAllister, a promoter for the speedway, said.
They're thinking positively and leaning on a back-up plan, with hopes of a quick return to everyday life.
"We always try to have our plan in place where we can survive times when we don't have as many fans or we don't have people coming in," McAllister said.
As the spread of the virus continues to grow, only time will tell what the future holds.
For general questions about COVID-19, visit the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control website at scdhec.gov/COVID19 or the CDC website here.