Worcester Walmart closed after inspection finds no face masks, 23 employees test positive
Photo | Grant Welker
The Walmart Supercenter at Tobias Boland Way in Worcester
Worcester city officials ordered the Walmart Supercenter store at 25 Tobias Boland Way to be temporarily closed after 23 employees tested positive for coronavirus.
The store will remain closed until it is professionally sanitized and inspected by the Worcester Department of Public Health, city officials said in a statement late Wednesday. The Worcester health department conducted an inspection of the store Tuesday and found staff was not wearing facial protective coverings as required by a city order.
The city's cease-and-desist order includes vacating all Walmart personnel from the site. Workers returning to work will be required to be tested for the virus under the direction of the city. All employees and patrons will also be required to wear face masks while in the store, and employees will be required to wear protective gloves.
A Walmart spokesman said Thursday that store workers were mostly in compliance with the city's face covering requirement. The company began requiring workers at all its stores to do so as of April 20.
Other safety steps have included testing workers' temperatures at the beginning of every shift, and those with temperatures above 100 degrees are sent home, said Charles Crowson, a senior manager for corporate communications at Walmart. Store hours have been reduced to 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. to allow more time for cleaning, aisles have been restricted to one-way flow, and clear plastic barriers installed at check-out aisles.
Crowson said he wasn't able to disclose more detail about workers testing positive for the virus but that anyone who had tested positive wouldn't have been working at the store in recent days. He wasn't able to give an expected schedule for reopening the store.
"We're going to make sure we're in complete compliance," Crowson said.
UMass Memorial Health Care's emergency medical services was at the site Thursday to begin testing approximately 400 employees for the virus, the hospital network said. Results can be available in less than 24 hours, UMass Memorial said.
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