2 Evergreen Park Walmart employees die after contracting the coronavirus

Two employees at an Evergreen Park Walmart store who contracted COVID-19 have died, store officials confirmed Saturday.

The workers were assigned to the store at 2500 W. 95th St. in the south suburb, which remained open Saturday.

”We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of two associates at our Evergreen Park store, and we are mourning along with their families,” Anne Hatfield, director of Walmart Global Communications, said in an emailed statement.

The company noted that neither associate had been at the store in more than a week, but did not release when they died.

”We took action to reinforce our cleaning and sanitizing measures, which include a deep-cleaning of key areas of the store,” Hatfield said.

Within the last week, the store passed a third-party safety and environmental compliance assessment, as well as a health department inspection, according to Hatfield, and has also hired an outside company to regularly clean and sanitize any frequently touched surfaces, like front entrances, carts, registers, bathrooms and food areas.

Nationwide, the chain has upped its cleaning measures, installed sneeze guards at registers, placed social distancing decals on floors and limited the number of customers allowed inside stores 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,” Hatfield said.

When asked about the deaths of the two Walmart employees during the Saturday COVID-19 briefing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke in general terms, encouraging “the essential workforce and the essential businesses that are open to take good care of themselves.”

“The businesses themselves know how vital their workers are,” Pritzker said. “I would suggest that people wear masks in any circumstance in which they’ll be coming in contact with the public on a regular basis.”