Shoppers says it was only a matter of time before the virus struck close to home.

UPDATE #2 (4:45 p.m.) Statement from Adam Grachnik - Walmart Director, Corporate Affairs

Late yesterday, we were informed of a presumptive case of COVID 19 related to one of our associates. After extensive consultation with local public health officials, we have re-opened our Midland store. As a precaution, the store has undergone a thorough deep cleaning to ensure it’s up to the standards our customers and associates expect and deserve.

We continue working with public health officials and are in touch with the associate and providing support to them and the store’s associates.

Rest assured, we will continue to take measures necessary to ensure the well-being of our customers and associates. We also urge people to take proper precautions and to contact a medical health professional if they are not feeling well.

For the time being, the store will open for reduced hours of 9:00 am – 6:00 pm all days of the week.

UPDATE #1 (1 p.m.): Store reopened, closes at 6 p.m. Wednesday

ORIGINAL STORY:

Midland’s Walmart Supercentre is closed after an employee was tested for COVID-19.

“I can tell you that we are working with public health officials to confirm whether an associate from our Midland store has tested positive for COVID-19,” Walmart Canada corporate affairs director Adam Grachnik said Wednesday at noon.

“We are in touch with them and providing support to them and the store’s associates.”

Grachnik said the company is working closely with public health authorities and hope to be able to soon reopen the store.

“In the meantime, given the serious nature of the incident, and on the advice of public health authorities, we have taken precautionary measures including a deep cleaning of the store,” he said.

A sign posted on the two main entrance doors notified customers that “the store is currently closed. Sorry for any inconvenience.”

Employees could be seen milling about the store’s aisles late-Wednesday morning, but didn’t answer inquiries at the door. As well, calls to the store were not answered and inquiries to various in-store departments were met with a busy signal.

While the normally busy parking lot remained relatively empty, a steady stream of vehicles slowly approached the front entrance so drivers could find out for themselves why the store wasn’t open.

“I’m not shocked by this,” said local resident Barbara West, who dropped by to pick up a prescription “It was just a matter of time before it hit close to home. It just shows us we shouldn’t live in a bubble.”

Raymond Miller said he’s visited the store a few times over the past week.

“Honestly, we’re quite nervous about the situation,” Miller said, who drove up to the front entrance. “We heard someone tested positive so I wanted to see for myself if they were open.”

Miller said the news just makes it more essential that everybody pulls together during difficult times like this.

“These sort of diseases are going to come around faster and more regularly. We need to do more manufacturing and production in Canada and not rely as much on the global supply chain.”

Fellow shopper Justin Remmert said he passed by the store three times Wednesday morning, expecting it to be open.

"One problem is they're limited how many of each item you can buy," he said, noting that forces those buying groceries to visit multiple stores when buying non-perishable foods. "If you can only buy one can of corn at a time, it's going to take five trips to buy enough for a family."