On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced revised guidelines for fully vaccinated people saying that they need not wear masks both outdoors and indoors unless they were in crowded places like buses, trains, homeless shelters, hospitals and more. However, major retail stores are not planning to remove their mask mandates.
Retail stores and restaurants have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic more so than many other businesses. Hence, they are not ready to changing the masking policies for their customers and employees although many of them are reviewing these policies.
Workers have faced irate customers wrath and have been injured and violently harmed when they have asked customers to wear masks in the past. Unions say that the mask mandate should remain for the protection of their grocery and retail store workers.
Another point to be noted is that Americans will not be asked for proof that shows that they have been fully vaccinated, to stop wearing masks outdoors and indoors. There are low transmission rates outdoors and relaxation of rules in outdoor settings have been recommending by many scientists from a while.
However, there is no mechanism available to check whether people have been vaccinated, especially after eligibility is now at ages 12 and above. Brick and mortar stores have seen their business flounder throughout the pandemic and indoor transmission of the virus by the unvaccinated is a probability that cannot be discounted.
As of Thursday, the following retailer stores said that would require their customers and workers to wear masks and to maintain social distancing.
However, these policies could change.
As of now, other huge stores have said that they are reviewing their policies on mask use. Some of these retailers include
Marc Perrone, president of United Food and Commercial Workers’ union noted that the CDC guidelines were “confusing” and said that it failed to consider the impact on essential workers who face unvaccinated customers as well as individuals who refuse to wear masks.
