Coronavirus strikes Bay stores

● Two Walmer Park outlets, one in Newton Parks temporarily closed

Three stores in Nelson Mandela Bay closed yesterday due to Covid-19.

The management of Pick n Pay confirmed last night that it had temporarily closed its store in Walmer Park after a contractor tested positive for the virus.

Earlier in the day, Dis-Chem, also in Walmer Park, closed its doors, apparently after a staff member’s test results came back positive late on Sunday.

No comment was available from the management, but the store was shut in the mid-aftern and a staff member confirmed the situation.

Late last night, the Shoprite Group said in a report on radio thaat it had closed its Newton Park Checkers store in similar circumstances.

Pick n Pay spokesperson Janine Caradonna said management had taken a number of steps as soon as the situation became clear.

“Our Walmer Park store is temporarily closed after a store contractor tested positive for coronavirus.

“We moved swiftly to trace the contractor’s close contacts and they were sent home immediately to self-quarantine.

“As a precaution, we have arranged for the remainder of the store staff who were not in close contact with the contractor to be screened by health practitioners.

“A specialist cleaning team is deep-cleaning and sanitising the entire store and it will reopen once this has been completed.

“We have informed the department of health.”

Caradonna said for Pick n Pay the health and safety of customers and staff was a top priority.

“Our stores have various preventative measures, including transparent perspex screens at all till points and all staff have face masks.

“Our staff follow strict hygiene rules and practices, including regular handwashing.”

When a reporter visited the Dis-Chem at Walmer Park in the afternoon, the doors were closed and the manager referred questions to the company’s Johannesburg head office, which did not respond despite e-mails and numerous phone calls.

Customers waiting outside said the store had opened briefly after being deep-cleaned but it was then closed again by the department of labour.

Speaking from home, a Dis-Chem Walmer Park staff member said he did not believe the company had dealt with the situation according to proper Covid-19 protocols.

“After our colleague tested positive, they should have closed the store down for at least a day to allow for it to be professionally deep-cleaned and everyone should have been tested and then sent home until their results were available and shown to be negative.”

The staff member, who did not want to be named, said the drama started on Saturday when screening showed a colleague who worked in customer service had a high temperature.

“He was tested and sent home and the result came back late on Sunday showing he was indeed infected with the virus.

“Early this morning, management called a meeting outside the store to tell us the news.

“Everyone was saying, ‘well we presume we must all get tested and then go home to wait for our results while you get this place properly sanitised, right?’ But management said no, they’re going to test the 15 colleagues who interact closely with this colleague and the rest of us can just wait outside while management does the deep-clean.”

He said the instructions were problematic in multiple ways.

“First, they’re not professional deep-cleaners.

“Second, why just those 15 employees when we know how this thing spreads?

“Everyone working in the store should have been tested.

“Then all 70-80 people who work at Dis-Chem Walmer Park should all have been sent home to wait for our results.

“That’s the way they dealt with the same situation at our Cape Road branch last month.

“It was deep-cleaned by an independent company and then a skeleton team was brought in from outside to run the store for a few days until everyone who was shown to have tested negative could start working again.”

He said he and several other colleagues had elected anyway to each pay R500 and take the test, which was being administered by the Dis-Chem clinic nurse.

In line with protocols, he had then gone home to quarantine himself, including from his wife, for two to five days.

No confirmation from Checkers Newton Park management was available but an Algoa FM report quoted the Shoprite Group as saying that the Checkers store had been closed “following positive testing for Covid-19”.

The store closed immediately and a professional decontamination company was brought in to sanitise and deep-clean, the statement said.

The store would be reopened in consultation with the provincial health department.

According to the report, the Shoprite Group said an employee screening programme supported by the company’s mobile clinic was activated and those who had close contact were now self-quarantining for 14 days.