Two employees at an Evergreen Park Walmart store who contracted COVID-19 have died, store officials confirmed Saturday.
The workers were assigned to the store at 2500 W. 95th St. in Evergreen Park, just southwest of Chicago, which remained open Saturday.
”We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of two associates at our Evergreen Park store, and we are mourning along with their families,” a Walmart spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The company noted that neither associate had been at the store in more than a week. The statement did not say when the employees died.
”We took action to reinforce our cleaning and sanitizing measures, which include a deep-cleaning of key areas of the store,” Walmart’s spokesperson said.
Within the last week, the store passed a third-party safety and environmental compliance assessment, as well as a health department inspection, according to Walmart.
Walmart has also hired an outside company to further clean and sanitize any frequently touched surfaces, like front entrances, carts, registers, bathrooms and food areas, Walmart said.
Nationwide, the chain has upped its cleaning measures, installed sneeze guards at registers, placed social distancing decals on floors and limited the number of customers allowed in at a given time, Walmart said.
”We’ll continue to take steps, such as screening associates, conducting temperature checks and providing masks and gloves for associates that want to use them,” Walmart said.
