Publix confirms more positive tests
Company: 3 more employees from Orlando-area stores have coronavirus
Publix has confirmed employees at three more Orlando-area stores have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total of locations confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel to 10.
The stores are at 5350 Central Florida Parkway in Orlando, 482 Altamonte Drive in Altamonte Springs and 5400 Hamlin Groves Trail in Winter Garden.
“Like other essential service providers, we have seen our own associates and their families personally impacted by COVID-19,” spokeswoman Nicole Maristany Krauss wrote in an emailed statement. “Unfortunately, as public health officials have indicated, we expect to see an increase in cases as the virus spreads in our communities.”
The Lakeland-based grocery store chain has also confirmed cases earlier in the pandemic at 2873 S. Orange Ave. south of downtown Orlando, 10615 Narcoossee Road and 14185 Lake Nona Blvd. in Orlando, 29 Blake Blvd. in Celebration, 16825 E. Colonial Drive near Bithlo, 2295 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park and 2338 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee.
Publix has more than 100 stores in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties.
Employees who test positive receive paid leave for 14 days, and staffers who have been in close contact with those employees are notified and receive up to two weeks of paid leave, Krauss said.
On April 20, Publix began making its employees wear masks, following other changes like installing sneeze guard-like barriers and directional floor markers to separate people.
The Walmart at 8108 S. John Young Parkway in Orlando temporarily closed for sanitation. A Walmart spokesman would not say if an employee or customer at the store had tested positive for coronavirus, citing privacy reasons, but did state that like the rest of Orlando, Walmart’s stores “have felt the impact of the coronavirus.”
Grocery stores are far from the only business having employees test positive as restaurants and bars across the region have had to shut down again after workers and customers notify them that they have the virus.