Tucson businesses see holiday weekend boom amid COVID-19 surge

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TUCSON, Arizona (KOLD News 13) – The long bank holiday weekend made big bucks for local businesses. But with the rise in COVID cases, some business owners are returning to the COVID attenuation they had at the start of the pandemic.

″ Of course that concerns us a lot. To work with a very public venue and a very well known venue we really need to measure what is great for business but also for the community. It’s a very difficult, everyday decision. We hope we make the right decisions, ”said David Slutes of Hotel Congress.

Hotel Congress has introduced new containment strategies due to the surge in COVID.

“There are only vaccinations in our club. A mask is recommended for the rest of the building, but every time you find yourself in that little box of a club we ask you to get vaccinated, ”he said.

Slutes says if things continue to get worse, the hotel convention will consider reverting to a full mask mandate for employees and customers.

″ This Labor Day weekend has been really great. Historically, it was one of our slowest weekends ever. It was starting to recover, of course, by this COVID thing, but now it seems busy, “he said.

On historic 4th Avenue, Pop-Cycle owners are reintroducing COVID protocols that they relaxed just a few months ago.

“We always had the capacity, but we released it when everyone was vaccinated and it was a bit safer, but now we’re trying to keep the capacity ten or less,” said owner Libby Tobey.

In addition to the capacity restriction, there is also a new mask requirement for everyone in the store, vaccinated or not. Tobey says all of their employees are fully vaccinated. Despite concerns about COVID-19, she is happy to see business is booming again.

Pima County is expected to expand its mask guidelines on Tuesday, September 7th. Pima County’s Board of Directors will meet. On the agenda: a decision to potentially require masks indoors when social distancing is not an option.

Copyright 2021 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

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