Mask mandates are making a return to Lionsgate’s Santa Monica, California, office, according to a memo sent to employees on Monday.
In the email provided to Fox News Digital, Sommer McElroy, Response Manager for Lionsgate/Starz, stated that "effective immediately" masks will be required on certain floors in their Santa Monica offices "until further notice." According to Deadline Hollywood, this encompasses "nearly half of the company’s employees at its flagship office at 2700 Colorado Ave. in Santa Monica."
"Employees must wear a medical grade face covering (surgical mask, KN95 or N95) when indoors except when alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their desk or workstation, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace," McElroy said.
In addition, Lionsgate will maintain a "building entry policy" where each employee is "required to perform a daily self-screening prior to coming to the office each day" and must notify McElroy if there are "new or worsening symptoms" or if they "travelled internationally in the last 10 days." Lionsgate will also conduct contact tracing and notify "all individuals who have been in close contact with employees who have tested positive for COVID-19."
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The studio is expected to provide at-home-test-kits to all staff in the Lionsgate Santa Monica office at request. Surgical mask and KN95s will be available at the front desk while N95s will be available upon request.
McElroy explained in the memo that the new mandates follow several employees testing positive for COVID-19 as cases have begun to rise.
Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier explained on "Outnumbered" that "the reason you have an uptick in cases right now is not because you did something wrong, it’s because for the last several years, we’ve seen an uptick in cases in the winter, and we also see one in the end of summer. This is just a normal cycle of this respiratory virus."
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She also criticized the possible return of mask mandates in response to the summer cycle.
"Anyone who is immunocompromised, or if you work with people who are immunocompromised, those are the people in appropriate settings [that] should consider wearing a high quality mask, like an N-95, not a single layer of cloth or surgical mask," she told the panel.
Saphier added, "Those don’t actually work as we’ve seen by many, many studies. But to actually say, you know, to wear masks again in the house and just being in public spaces, we have to move on."
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Recently, more mainstream media outlets have begun suggesting a return to masking. MSNBC ran a segment on kids masking to prevent the spread of the virus at the beginning of the new school year, PBS had one about wearing masks in crowded areas to prevent the spread, and CBS Mornings warned about the "Summer COVID Spike" that may happen due to people letting "their guard down" and forgetting to mask.
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