OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Starting next week, all customers will be required to wear a face masks or coverings at all Love’s Travel Stops.
The Oklahoma City-based Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores announced Tuesday that all of its stores will require a mask or face covering July 29 at the 520 locations that spans 41 states. The requirement will not only apply to Love’s Travel Stop, but other Love’s properties, including Love’s Country Store, Love’s Truck Care and Speedco.
The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, said wearing face masks reduced the daily number of coronavirus infections by as much as 2% in states that require masks to be worn in public.
“We are joining other retailers by implementing a face covering policy for customers, and will continue to follow the guidance of health officials and adjust our practices to help keep our customers and team members safe. We want to thank our customers who continue to adapt to these protective measures implemented at Love’s,” Shane Wharton, president of Love’s, said in a release.
Researchers say wearing face masks in public prevented between 230,000 and 450,000 new cases of COVID-19 infections during a five-week period this spring, strengthening the argument of those in favor of mandatory face masks for anyone out in public in the United States.
The argument about the need to wear face masks has been a muddled one. Originally, U.S. health officials told people not to wear masks, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the U.S. surgeon general changed course in April and recommended that masks be worn in public to help slow the transmission of COVID-19.