CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Governor Roy Cooper put a statewide requirement in place that will take effect on Friday, July 26 at 5 p.m.: everyone must wear a mask or face covering when they are out and about.
But not everyone in Charlotte is on board.
The mask requirement comes as North Carolina's trends in coronavirus cases continue to go in the wrong direction, according to the governor and state health officials.
Businesses are asked to enforce the requirement when customers come into stores or buildings. Masks will be required where you cannot properly social distance from others. Companies and businesses can be cited for not enforcing or requiring their employees or customers to wear them.
Police will also have the authority to enforce the new rule, but they will likely do so by education before handing out a citation.
If you are in a restaurant, you have to wear a mask as well. But not when you are at your table, instead, when you are up and away from your table, according to the order.
There are some exemptions, though.
Children under the age of 11 do not have to wear them. Additionally, if you have a medical condition and cannot wear one because of it, you do not have to wear one. This exemption will be based on the honor policy, according to the order.
You also do not have a wear a mask when you are out on a walk, run, or exercising outdoors.
Mask mandates have become political, and divisive in states and areas that have enacted them.
So, WCNC set out in Charlotte to get a pulse of what the community thought about the new requirement. Watch the attached video to hear from Charlotte residents on both sides of the debate —some in support and some opposed to a statewide mask mandate.
Regardless, at 5 p.m. Friday, masks will be required across the state.