McDonald’s to Keep Dining Rooms Closed in Texas, Mississippi

Reuters
By Reuters
March 4, 2021US News
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McDonald’s to Keep Dining Rooms Closed in Texas, Mississippi
Car headlights illuminate a boarded up McDonald's restaurant to prevent looting during a citywide curfew, on Oct. 28, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

McDonald’s Corp will keep dining rooms in its Texas and Mississippi restaurants closed, even as the two U.S. states lifted coronavirus curbs allowing businesses to reopen at full capacity.

The fast-food chain told Reuters on Thursday it was not planning to make any changes to its COVID-19 protocols right away.

The decline in the new number of daily COVID-19 cases and the rollout of vaccines prompted state and local governments to ease business restrictions in recent weeks, reopening movie theaters at limited capacity and resuming indoor dining in some parts of the country.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifted their state’s mask order and removed all restrictions on businesses earlier this week.

Several quick-service restaurants have resorted to drive-thru, delivery and pick-up services to limit contact and reduce the chances of its customers contracting the virus, even after lockdowns were lifted.

McDonald’s will look at state- and country-level data, assess case rates to make any decision on reopening dining rooms in the future, it confirmed.

General Motors, Toyota Motor, Target Corp., Macy’s Inc., and Kroger have also not made any changes to their mask policies.

By Nivedita Balu and Hilary Russ

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