Walmart employs about 1.6 million workers across the US. This number includes those from Sam’s Club, corporate and managerial jobs, as well as distribution centres. We’re talking about the largest company on the planet.
According to the New York Post, Walmart aims to force all managers to get a COVID vaccine by early October. Furthermore, all of those who work for the company are required to wear a mask if they are performing their jobs in high-risk areas. It doesn’t even matter if they’ve been vaccinated for COVID or not. All store workers have to obey the rule and mask up.
The mask mandate was already implemented
Walmart itself announced the mask mandate on Friday. The decision was implemented immediately.
Walmart’s new policy comes only several days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged people from large parts of the US to put masks on while indoors. The decision came in the context of the Delta variant for COVID causing a surge in infections across the nation.
Doug McMillion, who is Chief Executive, motivated the new rule by saying, as quoted by the New York Post:
We want to get to a place where we can use our offices and be together safely,
It’s important for our business, our culture, our speed and our innovation.
Considering the enormous notoriety of Walmart, you can easily imagine for yourself the tremendous impact of the new policy. According to the company itself, it’s employing over 2.3 million associates across the world, with nearly 1.6 million of them only in the US.
According to worldometers.info, the USA reached a total of over 35.6 million infections and a death toll of more than 629,000 souls. The good news is that more than 29.6 million patients had been recovered, according to the same source.
While doctors warn that even those who are vaccinated can still be affected by the Delta variant of COVID, it’s hard to tell how the entire situation will end.
