Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an executive order Thursday requiring face masks to be worn in public places throughout the state. The mandate, which will go into effect Monday, comes a day after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mask mandate in her state, and Walmart and Sam’s Club announced that they would require customers in all of their stores to wear masks. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday took the opposite action, banning local governments in the state from issuing their own face covering rules. Hutchinson had previously resisted issuing a mandate, questioning how such an order could effectively be enforced. But Arkansas has seen a massive surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
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