As the Delta and Gamma variants of COVID-19 make their round throughout the country, major retail and grocery stores are updating their mask policies.

According to CNN, internal documents from the CDC say,

Given higher transmissibility and current vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential to reduce transmission of the Delta variant.

New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, recommends that citizens get vaccinated to help protect against the Delta variant,

"The Delta variant spreads quickly and those who are vaccinated are less likely to catch it and less likely to be hospitalized if they do. We've seen this movie before, but this time we have the key to preventing another mutation - the vaccine. Almost all new cases of COVID arising are the Delta variant. Don't wait until it's too late. Get your vaccination as soon as possible."

The numbers of COVID-19 positive cases continues to rise in New York and around the rest of the country. Here are the latest numbers (as of August 2, 2021) provided by the Governor's Office,

Test Results Reported - 72,514
Total Positive - 2,143
Percent Positive - 2.96%
7-Day Average Percent Positive - 2.53%
Patient Hospitalization - 788 (+50)
Patients Newly Admitted - 122
Patients in ICU - 162 (+10)
Patients in ICU with Intubation - 56 (+4)
Total Discharges - 186,983 (+88)
Deaths - 4
Total Deaths - 43,093
Total vaccine doses administered - 22,324,811

Some of the retailers and grocery stores below have recently updated their mask policies, some haven't since around May, so those may be changing soon.

Updated Mask Policies At Major Retailers and Grocery Stores

7 Things to Know About the Delta Variant of COVID-19

More From 92.9 WBUF