2 Walmart employees in Chicago area die from COVID-19

Two employees of a Walmart in suburban Chicago have died from COVID-19.

The announcement was made Friday. The employees worked at a Walmart located in Evergreen Park, Illinois.

The Walmart affected released the following statement.

“We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of two associates at our Evergreen Park store, and we are mourning along with their families. While neither associate had been at the store in more than a week, we took action to reinforce our cleaning and sanitizing measures, which include a deep-cleaning of key areas of the store. Within the last week, the store passed a third-party safety and environmental compliance assessment as well as a health department inspection. We have also taken the extra precaution of bringing in an outside company to further clean and sanitize all high-touch surfaces in the store, which included the decontamination of front entrances, carts, registers and bathrooms, as well as food areas including produce and meat.

“Additionally, we have taken steps across the country to protect our associates and customers, including additional cleaning measures, installing sneeze guards at registers, placing social distancing decals on the floors and limiting the number of customers in a store at a given time. 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.

“We’ve been in contact with Mayor Sexton and after sharing the steps that we’ve taken, we are able to continue serving the needs of the community."

Also on Friday, Illinois health officials announced 1,209 new cases of the coronavirus, raising the state’s case total to 8,904.

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