Earlier this week, a Ford mask mandate was reinstated for the automaker’s facilities in the states of Florida and Missouri as positive COVID-19 cases begin to rise once again as a result of the Delta variant of the virus. At that time, Ford said that it would continue to monitor case data and make additional changes if necessary. Now it has, as the Ford mask mandate has been restored at the automaker’s Kentucky plants, according to Automotive News.
The mandate, which will go into effect on Saturday, affects employees at the Ford Louisville Assembly Plant, which builds the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair, as well as the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant, which is where the Ford Super Duty, Ford Expedition, and Lincoln Navigator are produced. Earlier this week, the automaker also announced that it will require all of its U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated before they embark on any international business travel, as per CDC recommendations.
These moves come only a month after the UAW announced that it was dropping mask mandates for all three Detroit automakers effective July 12th. The union mulled over that decision for weeks after the CDC revised its guidance on face coverings, suggesting that those who have been vaccinated no longer needed to wear masks indoors in most settings.
The CDC reversed course earlier this week, saying that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in areas “of substantial or high transmission.” Meanwhile, Ford continues to offer on-site vaccines for its employees at a number of its U.S. plants as both the automaker and the UAW encourage autoworkers to get vaccinated.
We’ll have more on the status of Ford’s mask mandates as soon as it’s available, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-related COVID-19 news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
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