Wegmans just tweeted this message, denying that an employee of one of its stores in Monroe County, NY, has been diagnosed with COVID-19 :
It has come to our attention that a rumor is circulating which states the person in Monroe County who tested positive for COVID-19 is Wegmans employee and we are closing our Ridgemont store. Both of these statements are not true.
— Wegmans Food Markets (@Wegmans) March 12, 2020
Good news. Yet employees and customers deserve more detailed information.
The company issued a press release on Monday, describing ways it had stepped up sanitary procedures and noting limits set on purchases of virus-related goods.
We applaud those measures (and must say that Wegmans has always placed a premium on cleanliness and safety).
But with health officials predicting that as many as 150 million Americans may contract the virus, we’d like to hear about the company’s response plans for when diagnoses begin to occur. (And they will, undoubtedly, occur.)
A few obvious questions that are surely troubling people already:- Will staff and customers be notified? How?
- Will stores close?
- Will employees be compensated for lost work time?
- Will the company help them cover the costs of testing and treatment?
It would be great to see Wegmans lead the way in this, as it has with New York’s ban on plastic bags.