Like other communities across the country, Glendale is experiencing an uptick in COVID cases. Maricopa County as a whole has a level of community transmission the CDC rates as “high” as of Tuesday. Currently, 59.7% of U.S. counties have “high transmission” and 18.8% have “substantial transmission,” according to CDC data.

And Arizona ranks 36th in fully vaccinated adults in the U.S. and Territories at 55.7%, according to Aug. 3 New York Times data. Vermont (77.9%) currently ranks first, and Alabama (43.3%) comes in last.

As recently as July 27, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey made clear the state won’t be issuing a mask mandate indoors.

“Arizona does not allow mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports or discrimination in schools based on who is or isn’t vaccinated,” Ducey said in a statement. “We’ve passed all of this into law, and it will not change.”

Meanwhile, Glendale Chamber of Commerce CEO Robert Heidt started “taking the pulse” of small local businesses last week as it relates to the businesses themselves deciding whether or not they will require masks inside their premises with COVID numbers surging again.

“As I talk with the small [business] folks within our community, they’re kind of torn where some of them want to have [a re-instituted mask mandate] and just adamantly put it up and post it and won’t worry about the ripple effect or aftermath of it,” Heidt said Tuesday. “Several of them said to me, what makes it easier is when the city or state says you have to wear the masks. Because now it’s a debate with their customers.”

The city of Glendale, which originally mandated mask wearing inside city buildings in June of 2020 and then lifted the requirement in April 2021, as of Aug. 3 is not issuing another mask mandate.

“As a city we are continuing to monitor the number of positive cases. We will adjust policies and city guidelines accordingly,” public information officer Jay Crandall shared in a Tuesday email to the Glendale Independent. “At this time, there are no changes being made.”

Hospitals, too, are reporting an increase in COVID patients.

“Since July 1st, COVID hospitalizations have increased by 95%, and ventilator usage has increased by 300%,” Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer at Banner Health, said in a Tuesday press conference. Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, and owns and operates 30 acute-care hospitals in six states. “Hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ventilator usage are in the 20- to 60-year age group, which is different from prior surges when most patients were over 60 years of age.”

She added that the Delta variant is fueling the virus’ spread in the U.S., particularly among the unvaccinated.

“Roughly 97% of COVID hospitalizations and 99% of deaths are individuals who are unvaccinated,” Bessel said.

Big businesses are considering instituting mask requirements in stores again. Target returned to requiring masks for employees in high-risk counties across the U.S. starting Tuesday.

Heidt said the businesses with whom he’s spoken indicate that a city or state mask mandate would ease pressure on the business itself to require masks.

“It really puts the business community in a tough spot. We know that we are in a very divided marketplace when it comes to people who will wear their mask or won’t wear their mask. Or who think that because they got vaccinated that they might not get sick or they might not be a carrier and get someone else sick,” he said.

“So it’s interesting as you get the different business owners to open up and talk about it, because when it’s mandated it takes the conversation off the table about that particular business from their customers who say I will or won’t support you. At the same time, when those business owners have been bold enough to put up ‘mask required,’ they hear compliments from people who are appreciative of it. But they certainly get the negative impact from people who think it’s ridiculous.”

Heidt added that the Glendale Chamber, in Historic Downtown Glendale, requires employees and visitors to wear masks indoors whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. The Chamber is in the 85301 ZIP code, which has been leading city ZIP codes in total cases throughout the pandemic, followed by 85308.

“I realize [a Chamber mask mandate] may upset a few people. But I don’t want the Chamber to get impacted by this Delta variant to where we can’t provide services,” he added. “Throughout this pandemic we have provided critical services to keep businesses moving forward and to try and provide them help.”

The Glendale Chamber, with 1,400 members, is among the largest of the 60 statewide Chambers'.

“It really comes down to do you follow the data and the science. Are we going to continue to argue semantics over what they heard on this news or what they heard in this tweet or whatever, or really look at what this pandemic has done?” Heidt said. “If we want a healthy business community, we need a healthy workforce. That’s the bottom line.”

This story was originally published in yourvalley.net