ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Effective immediately, all customers are “strongly” encouraged to wear masks while shopping inside Wegmans Food Markets stores, regardless of vaccination status, the company announced late Tuesday.
According to a news release posted to the Rochester, New York-based grocery chain’s website and social media accounts, the measure reflects updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local governments.
Effective immediately: After reviewing the updated guidance from the CDC & state & local health departments, we strongly encourage all customers, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask while shopping with us. All employees are now required to wear a mask in our stores.
— Wegmans Food Markets (@Wegmans) August 3, 2021
The policy tweak also applies to all Wegmans employees, the Democrat & Chronicle reported.
The masking policy changes are a direct result of the highly-transmissible delta variant fueling a surge of new COVID-19 infections across New York and nationwide, the newspaper reported.
Wegmans’ announcement follows similar policy adjustments made by a host of national retailers and restaurants in recent days, PennLive.com reported.
Home Depot is now requiring employees and vendors to wear masks and is asking customers to wear masks. Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, Kohl’s and McDonald’s are also requiring employees to wear masks in areas of the country with high transmission rates of the coronavirus, the outlet reported.
More coronavirus pandemic coverage:
>> Coronavirus: How long between exposure to the virus and the start of symptoms?
>> How to not let coronavirus pandemic fatigue set in, battle back if it does
©2021 Cox Media Group