Chicago, IL — Walmart has confirmed that two of their workers at a Chicago-area store have died after testing positive from the coronavirus. The retail giant said they are implementing better health measures to protect their workers from being infected with COVID-19.
Walmart did not provide specific details regarding the employees’ names, ages, or even when they were tested positive and died. However, it said the two employees had not been reporting to work in the Evergreen store “for more than a week.”
Grocery stores like Walmart are deemed “essential businesses” during this coronavirus pandemic, but their employees are worried about the higher risk of being infected with the virus at work. Even though the company promised to provide employees with protective gear such as masks, sourcing it has been challenging as demand kept increasing.
Moreover, Walmart said it has implemented cleaning and sanitizing measures in its stores as well as limited store hours, employee temperature checks and paid leave. They also limited the number of customers that can enter stores at the same time to allow social distancing.