Two employees at the same Walmart store have died from coronavirus, the company confirmed on 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,” the company said in a statement.
The two victims were both employees at the same Chicago-area store, however the statement did not detail the names or ages of the workers.
According to the company, neither of the associates had been on the Evergreen Park store premises for “more than a week” and the company said it had implemented stringent sanitising measures.
Research has shown that for most people coronavirus symptoms typically take up to five days after exposure to show.
However, it can take up to two weeks, and individuals can still be infectious carriers without showing symptoms.
The company said that it had passed “ necessary inspections, including an environmental compliance assessment” and remains open to customers.
The store is also said to have brought in an outside company to clean areas of the store that are more likely to have been touched or utilised exclusively by Walmart associates.
Essential workers who are continuing to work through the pandemic are said to be put at heightened risk of contracting and spreading the disease, often having to work without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
With scarce supplies of PPE on the front lines of the virus for medical workers, equipment for other workers is hard to source.
Dan Bartlett, the company’s vice president of corporate affairs, told reporters that the company has waited to secure protective gear to avoid limiting equipment that could go to strained health workers.
Mr Bartlett said the first shipment of masks needed for the company’s employees each week will arrive in one or two weeks and that the company will need more than seven million masks each week to protect its employees from the virus, according to CNN.
“We are in the process of providing gloves and masks for associates that we would like to use them at work, screening associates prior to work and temperature checks for associates before their shift,” Walmart Evergreen Park said in a statement.
