HOUSTON — The first case of coronavirus in Texas was reported in early March.
However, rumors swirled that coronavirus was spreading in Houston’s Chinatown a year ago.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is less than two weeks away and business owners in Chinatown hope the year of the Ox brings with it a lot of prosperity.
This time last year rumors that coronavirus was in Chinatown started spreading which made business plummet.
Cori Xiong owns Mala Sichuan Bistro.
“During the worse, the very, very worst times it was down by probably 80 percent for us,” Xiong said.
She’s managed to stay open because she’s adapted to the way people spend money.
“A lot of them are doing business more digitally and that’s not going to go away after the pandemic,” Xiong said. “Like for example, we’ve built a website so that people can place their order on the website.’
She said those who don’t won’t survive another year.
Also, Kenneth Li, a board member on the Asian Chamber of Commerce, said some Chinatown businesses that shut down at the beginning of the COVID crisis were never able to recover.
“The business volume may be decreased but I think the business activity still coming strong,” Li said.
Over the last year they’ve seen a lot of businesses change hands.
"The business closed down but the owners still pay rent so they want to keep the space because before COVID-19 we had probably 95 percent occupancy in every commercial properties," he said.
While COVID-19 vaccines are here business owners like Xiong know it’s going to be a while before things go back to normal.
“I think this is going to end once there’s herd immunity,” Xiong said.