Scottsdale extends mandate to wear face masks in public through Aug. 20

PHOENIX — Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane extended the city’s face mask mandate through Aug. 20, he announced Friday evening.

“I speak regularly to health care leaders in Scottsdale, who tell me that the stress on our hospital resources is substantial, and we certainly can’t afford for it to get worse,” he said in a statement.

“On the basis of that knowledge and the other data in the county, I am extending Scottsdale’s emergency proclamation requiring face coverings and will continue monitoring the data and trends.”

People will be required to cover their nose and mouth while in public. Employees of businesses that interact with the public must also wear masks.

There are exceptions for children under the age of 6, people “engaged in religious service” and for those whose health conditions would be aggravated my the masks, per CDC guidance.

Mayor Lane extends face covering order to Aug. 20. Scottsdale's emergency order requires people to cover nose and mouth within all public accommodations within the city, which includes grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, retail stores, special events and public transit. 1/

— City of Scottsdale (@scottsdaleazgov) July 17, 2020

The initial order went into effect June 19. Protesters gathered the following week to object to the mandate.

Even if the Scottsdale order had been allowed to expire, a mask mandate would still be in place by Maricopa County.

The county instituted a similar ordinance June 19 as the positive percentage of coronavirus tests spiked.

After falling as low as 5% in May, the PCR positive percentage in the county was 15.8% on Friday, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Early during the coronavirus pandemic, there were recommendations against the general public wearing masks and that they should be reserved for healthcare professionals. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that as doctors learned more, evidence shifted toward the public wearing masks as an effective tool to combat the spread.

“We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm’s way every day to take care of sick people,” Fauci said in a July interview with InStyle.

“When it became clear that the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don’t know they’re infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks.”

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