Walmart, Disney Announce New COVID-19 Measures Amid Delta Wave

The company said Walmart employees are required to wear masks in areas with high communication. Walmart announced Friday that it is once again urging some American workers to wear face masks while Disney vaccinates non-union American workers. The move comes as US officials resumed efforts to promote more vaccines in response to the highly contagious delta form of COVID-19.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said it would again require employees to wear face masks in stores across the United States with high rates of COVID-19 communication. The chain, which has become a beacon of safety protocols in the United States during the pandemic, said it also included signs at stores to "strongly encourage" customers to wear masks or face ingots, the company said on its official portal. 

The company cited revised guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which said on Tuesday that Americans vaccinated in high-risk areas of the United States should resume wearing indoor masks because of the presence of Delta transition increases.

In areas of high communication, Walmart employees "must wear a mask or face covering when working indoors, regardless of vaccination status," the company said.

After the CDC's analysis on communication rates, the policy will be determined by region, the company said. Guidance will be updated every Monday when CDC releases new data.

Walmart's requirement for face masks as of July 2020 made such rules mainstream at retailers and in corporate America at a time when the virus was spreading rapidly and there was the little political consensus around masks.

The CDC removed mask guidelines for people who had been fully vaccinated in May, and Walmart eliminated the requirement for customers the next day. Several other companies soon followed suit.

Walmart's announcement comes at a time when larger businesses are taking similar steps, with concerns over the Delta version rising.

Later on Friday, Disney announced its new vaccination requirement for non-union workers and said it was also negotiating a policy extension for union employees.

Disney said the Covid-19 vaccine "provides the best protection against serious infections. We are demanding that all salaried and non-federal hourly workers working at any of our sites in the United States be fully vaccinated.” Let's go

Disney announced earlier this week that it would once again require face masks at indoor US theme parks.

Other companies have also started demanding that employees be vaccinated. On Wednesday, Google and Facebook said returning employees would need to be vaccinated against COVID-19.