Walmart, CVS will require shoppers to wear masks, starting Monday
Target will also require masks, beginning Aug. 1.
Walmart will soon require customers to wear a mask while shopping.
If you go shopping at Walmart or CVS after this week, you'll have to wear a mask -- the retail giants will require customers to wear face coverings starting Monday, July 20. Target will also require customers to wear masks, as of Aug. 1.
"As the number of confirmed cases has spiked in communities across the country recently, so too have the number and types of face covering mandates being implemented," Walmart COO Dacona Smith and Sam's Club COO Lance de la Rosa wrote in a Wednesday release. "Currently about 65% of our more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is some form of government mandate on face coverings."
Walmart will post signs and station designated "health ambassador" employees outside store entrances to remind shoppers to wear a mask. The requirement will also extend to Walmart-owned wholesale retailer Sam's Club.
CVS will also require customers to wear masks starting July 20, according to a release Thursday.
"With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections, we're joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country," said CVS Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts. "What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering."
Target will be requiring all customers, except small children and people with underlying health conditions, to wear face masks starting Aug. 1. The retail chain said on its coronavirus response page that Target will provide disposable masks at the store's entrance to shoppers who don't have a covering.
COVID-19 spreads mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These droplets can then land in the mouths or noses of other people, or be inhaled into the lungs. The CDC recommends that to avoid spreading the coronavirus, everyone wear a cloth face covering while in public, especially when other social distancing measures can't be practiced.