McDonald’s Reinstates Mask Mandate in Areas With High COVID Spread

File photo: McDonald's in Times Square, New York, on Aug. 23, 2016. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

McDonald’s is again requiring customers and employees to wear masks indoors in areas with high or substantial transmission of the CCP virus, the company confirmed to The Epoch Times.

McDonald’s is the biggest chain to require masks for both employees and customers. Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Kohl’s and Publix recently imposed mask mandates on employees but did not extend the requirement to customers.

The retail giants are all responding to CDC guidance issued last week, which advised fully vaccinated people to don masks again in crowded indoor settings.

McDonald’s had removed its mandate back in May as CCP virus cases across the U.S. dropped and the CDC advised that fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks in most settings.

As of Monday, more than 79 percent percent of U.S. counties had reported high or substantial transmission levels of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, according to the CDC.

The United States logged more than 100,000 new infections on July 30, the highest single-day total since February. Over the next two days, a much lower total of 42,818 cases was reported nationwide.

The seven-day average of cases has been rising since late June. Meanwhile, the average number of daily deaths ticked up at a slower rate, from a 16-month low of 172 per day on July 10 to 284 on Sunday.

The average daily deaths in the U.S. peaked at above 3,600 in mid-January.

The CDC reversed its mask guidance last week based on a study that showed that fully vaccinated people could spread COVID-19 almost as well as those who did not take the vaccine.

While there are dozens of circumstantial studies suggesting masks may help slow the spread of the CCP virus, no randomized blind control study has been conducted to verify the hypothesis.

Amid the winter surge, several Republican governors, including Florida’s Ron DeSantis, have steered clear of mandating masks and left the decision up to individual businesses.