Coronavirus Update: Seattle-Based Starbucks Worker Tests Positive For COVID-19
A Starbucks (SBUX) employee has reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus, causing the coffee chain to close a downtown Seattle store for deep cleaning.
The employee is being isolated at home while Starbucks sanitizes the store, which has been allowed by health officials to re-open after the cleaning, a memo obtained by CNN read. The company has not said when the store will resume business.
Starbucks said it is following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its coronavirus protocols, with Rossann Williams, executive vice president at the company telling CNN, “The frequent, additional cleaning and sanitizing procedures already underway in all our stores are fully in line with their guidance.”
Starbucks joins Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Gap Inc., which have all had employees in their Washington offices that have tested positive for COVID-19. The companies have closed these offices for deep cleaning and have encouraged employees to work from home.
Washington has been the epicenter for coronavirus cases in the U.S. with the state’s health department reporting that 136 people have tested positive for the virus with 18 death. Worldwide, more than 109,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported, with over 3,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Starbucks announced last week that it was no longer allowing the use of personal cups at all of its global stores to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Shares of Starbucks stock were down 2.12% as of 11:46 a.m. EDT on Monday.
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