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5 Dallas stores undergo deep cleans after employees test positive for COVID-19

Some stores in D-FW are closing for a day or two to deep clean while others are doing it overnight.

Don’t be surprised if one of your neighborhood stores closes for a day or two as coronavirus cases continue to spike in Texas. It has happened infrequently so far, but temporary shutdowns may become more common.

Spot closings help retailers keep their front-line employees and customers safe, and experts say it’s a good idea to address the issue head on when a store has an employee who tests positive. If they show they have a plan in place, they’re more likely to keep customers, said Anita Varma, an ethics professor at Santa Clara University.

“Retailers have an ethical obligation to disclose cases to the public because a customer could be living with someone who’s immunocompromised,” she said. “There are serious implications. You won’t attract customers if you’re a hot spot for the virus, but you also won’t keep customers if word gets out about cases from a source other than you.”

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Dallas County Health and Human Services data show that 91 employees in retail and personal services were hospitalized for COVID-19 between March 10 and June 22. The only category with more hospitalizations is the one that includes meat packing and food processing plants, which have spawned outbreaks nationwide. There have been 125 hospitalizations in that category.

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Grocery retailers, hardware stores and pharmacies have been dealing with employees testing positive for coronavirus since the pandemic started. But businesses have learned a lot in recent weeks. Most national chains are handling outbreaks on a store-to-store basis.

Here’s what’s happening locally:

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  • The 24-hour Walgreens on Lemmon and McKinney in Uptown closed Tuesday and reopened at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
  • The Walmart Neighborhood Market in Casa View Shopping Center in Far East Dallas closed last weekend on Friday and reopened Sunday morning.
  • The Joann store at Preston and Forest in Preston Hollow closed in early June after an employee tested positive and remains open with curbside pickup only. Joann told employees at the store where the single case was reported that they could take a leave of absence, spokeswoman Shauntina Lilly said.
  • Apple stores in Houston closed Thursday. D-FW stores had been open to shoppers but are now back requiring appointments and offering curbside pickup for online orders.
  • A spokeswoman for Burlington said its store on West Parker Road in Plano on Wednesday night “completed a deep cleaning to maintain updated safety measures and precautions.”
  • Target’s Love Field store on Marsh Lane in Dallas was deep cleaned and sanitized overnight recently after two team members tested positive. The employees are in quarantine and will still be paid, Target said. The rest of the team was informed about the cases. “We’ll continue to be transparent in the process, along with the measures we put in place to address it,” Target said in a statement. The retailer said it cleans and sanitizes stores throughout the day.

After an employee tested positive at Walgreens in Uptown, the store temporarily closed “out of an abundance of caution” to conduct cleaning, spokesman Phil Caruso said.

“When notified of a confirmed or presumed positive COVID-19 case, we take rigorous action to meet or exceed recommendations from the CDC, OSHA, public health officials and other regulatory health agencies while following federal, state and local health advisories,” Caruso said.

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He said store and regional managers also identify and contact people who may be at risk so they can self-quarantine and monitor their health.

What about customers? Some experts say they’re left out of the loop.

“There’s no very good way for retailers to let customers know” that a store has had an employee test positive or become ill, said Gary Huddleston, spokesman for the Texas Retailers Association. “There’s no plan to keep it a secret but no plans to make it generally known.”

Retailers should disclose confirmed employee cases with a focus on what they’re doing to protect employees and customers, Varma said. This includes how many employees tested positive, where and when they worked in the store and information about the store’s confidence in its cleaning procedures and whether another case is likely to occur.

“This is an ethical way to disclose cases in a way that mitigates panic while mitigating our tendency to say, ‘Oh, it probably wasn’t when I was at the store,' “ she said. “We all have blind spots.”

While retailers shouldn’t reveal an employee’s identity when someone tests positive, they also have an ethical obligation to let that employee speak out about their experience if they choose to, she said.

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Varma compares it to product recalls when a company has a duty to do its best to reach people. But after months of little to no business due to stay-at-home orders, some retailers may be hesitant to say anything that might discourage customers from coming in, she said.

Dallas Regional Chamber chief operating officer Angela Farley said it’s not practical to think a store will be able to reach customers. She said the chamber recommends procedures that doctors use at hospitals: Deep clean the space and go back to work.

Employers should have an exit strategy for the sick employee, help them get tested and self-quarantine, Farley said. “We want people working and spending money because that’s what needs to be done to get the economy going again.”

Dr. Jennifer Rabaglia, associate chief medical officer and chief quality officer at Parkland Health & Hospital System, says there are three options for a deep clean: a manual clean of all surfaces with FDA-approved solutions effective against COVID-19; UV devices that radiate visible surfaces or misting devices; or a new ionic product that can bleach entire surfaces, even the parts you can’t see. The hospital uses a combination of manual cleaning and a UV device.

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“If you can avoid it, it’s better to stay home,” she said. “But the single most important thing you can do is wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth and fits snugly to the sides of your face.”

The National Retail Federation recommends that retailers create a well-defined protocol for handling employees with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Stores should determine whether they are required to share the case with government agencies and public authorities. OSHA is asking employers to report work-related cases of the coronavirus.

Retailers should also have a contact tracing protocol that complies with privacy and disability discrimination laws, the retail federation says.

Some retailers, particularly mom-and-pop stores, may have to close temporarily if a worker tests positive because they don’t have the staffing of a big chain, Huddleston said.

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Not all stores have reopened since the coronavirus closed them in mid-March, according to data collected by Yelp. As of June 15, there were nearly 140,000 total U.S. business closures still listed on Yelp, down from 175,000 in April.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, 3,225 retail, restaurant and service businesses were still closed on Thursday that were open on March 1, according to the online business directory that hosts customer reviews.

Since June 20, stores in Dallas County must require customers to wear masks while shopping.

Some shoppers remove their masks after they get past the front door, Huddleston said, and “then you have a conflict in the store. But the vast majority of customers are wearing them.”

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