Portland Street Superstore closed for cleaning after employee tests positive for COVID-19

The Atlantic Superstore location at 650 Portland Street is currently closed for cleaning after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

Director of Corporate Affairs for Loblaw Atlantic, Mark Boudreau, said the staff member last worked on March 30.

He added the company takes the safety of its customers and employees very seriously and public health officials have said the risk to customers is low.

“We are reaching out to local public health officials and are taking a number of steps to minimize risk, including increased sanitization protocols and enforcing social distancing practices in the store,” Boudreau said in an emailed statement to HalifaxToday.ca.

He said that includes:

• We have been working with public health officials to contact all potentially affected colleagues and taking appropriate action.
• A professional cleaning company will do a thorough cleaning of the store overnight –  we contract a 3rd party professional cleaning company to cover all areas of the store.  Available colleagues will help with this.
• Overnight will complete a deep clean and sanitization of the entire store. Additionally, colleagues and Department Heads are conducting another round of sanitization throughout the store.
• We follow all protocols within the store recommended by public health officials. If fact, we will absolutely go above and beyond what is required.

The store will be closed for the rest of the day, and with tomorrow being Good Friday, it's expected to reopen on Saturday.