By no means, as far as this pandemic is concerned, are we out of the woods yet. Recent events have showed us how contagious COVID-19 is and reinforced to us the need to actively support social distancing and hand hygiene.

Yet we must start to function again as a society. Our economy is on life support and needs us as a community to get back to work. Many businesses have been able to pivot and continue to operate during this period, but many others will be preparing to do so now. The sad truth is some businesses won't make it back.

Now, more than ever, we need to support local business as much as possible. When the impact of the pandemic and restrictions hit, the Illawarra Mercury launched our Taking Care of Business campaign. The campaign was designed to showcase the local businesses who were adapting and innovating.

We also launched a free online directory called Open For Business where any business could register to tell the people of the Illawarra they were open for trading.

As we move into stage one of restrictions easing we will now be turning focus to a Back In Business campaign. If you are now opening your business, you can register it free in our Back in Business directory. If you have already registered as part of the Open for Business directory you will be emailed to update your details.

On Wednesday night at 6pm, we'll also ask businesses to join us for our Business Hour on the Mercury Facebook page.

We'll be pinning a post to our page at 6pm each Wednesday for the next four weeks where businesses can comment and tell our thousands of Facebook followers what they are doing in their return to business.

Please, if you are a local business opening your doors, register for our Back In Business directory and join us for our Business Hour on the Mercury Facebook page at 6pm on Wednesday.