H-E-B Will Continue to Ask Customers to Wear Face Coverings
In an H-E-B Newsroom article posted on Friday, March 5th, it was announced that face coverings will still be required despite Texas' statewide mask mandate being lifted as of March 10th.
Signs requiring mask use will remain posted at H-E-B entrances, and announcements will continue to be made in stores. All shoppers are expected to wear masks while inside the store, and all partners and vendors will need to wear masks while at work, H-E-B said.
H-E-B President Scott McClelland told KHOU 11 that if a customer enters the store without a mask, an employee will ask them to put one on. Employees will even offer a mask to customers. If the customer refuses, it's said that the situation will not be escalated.
H-E-B noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state and local health officials, strongly advice the use of face coverings in public spaces. Even before the mask mandate, H-E-B says they've been a strong advocate of mask use.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the announcement in Lubbock on Tuesday, March 2nd that the statewide mask mandate would be lifted beginning on March 10th. However, businesses still have the choice to require face coverings from customers.
On top of announcing the end of the mask mandate, the governor announced that also starting March 10th, all businesses in Texas could reopen at 100 percent capacity. Now, when a hospital region's COVID-19 rate goes above 15 percent for 7 straight days, businesses can only be restricted to 50 percent occupancy now.