Amazon Drops Mask Mandate for Vaccinated Employees at Warehouses

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 11 February 2022, 08:02 pm

Amazon announced it will no longer require its warehouse employees to wear face masks at work as long as they are fully vaccinated.

The dropping of the mask mandate came after the United States had eased up on its restrictions for vaccinated people. An internal memo about the change was sent on Feb. 10.

Amazon's Mask Mandate

Several states have already said that they will end or scale back their mask mandates soon, including Delaware, Oregon, and California.

Under the new policy, those who are not yet vaccinated or those states that have not scaled back mask mandates must still wear face masks in all Amazon facilities, according to CNN.

According to CNN, there has been a sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across the United States over the past few weeks.

Together with increasing vaccination rates across the country, this is a good sign that the country can return to the path to normal operations.

Also Read: Apple Stores Drop Mask Mandate for Customers in Over 100 Locations as COVID-19 Cases Declines

In the same memo sent by Amazon, the company also announced plans to restrict its offer of COVID-19-related paid leave.

Beginning March 18, only fully vaccinated employees will be eligible to get COVID-19 paid leave in the country. The restriction does not apply to employees with medical or religious exemptions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

All unvaccinated employees that are not eligible for paid leave under the policy may still take up to a week of unpaid leave for COVID-19 isolation or quarantine.

Last year, to encourage employees to get vaccinated, Amazon offered up to $100,000 payout or free cars.

Statewide Mask Mandates

Amazon's mask mandate change mirrors the disappearance of local mask mandates across the country. At the national level, though, the guidance for wearing masks is still there, according to News 4.

This causes confusion among the public as they do not know if they need to mask up or not. Whether you must wear a mask depends on where you live in the country, but whether you should is a different story.

Around a fifth of states never had mask mandates, as some states with more conservative governors like Florida punished schools that put mask mandates in place by withholding funds, even when COVID-19 cases were very high.

The local government of New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, California, and Delaware, states that had more strict mask rules, announced that the cases dropped in their respective areas, and people could stop wearing masks if they chose to do so.

A couple of public health experts think now is the right time to remove this policy, especially in communities that are high in vaccinated people.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, the executive associate dean of the Emory University School of Medicine, as the cases are decreasing now, in a couple of weeks, removing masks is the right thing to do.

However, the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention or CDC guidelines have not changed at all. The agency still advises people to still wear a mask when indoors in public if they are not up to date with their vaccines.

Many Americans are still not vaccinated. Only 42% of the population is fully vaccinated and boosted. In schools, the CDC recommends everyone to wear masks, no matter what their vaccination status is.

As for private businesses, like Amazon, the decision to wear masks depends on them. Since a lot of employees are already vaccinated, Amazon decided to just drop the policy.