GERMANTOWN, Md. — Aldi has closed a Germantown, Maryland location temporarily after three employees tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
As of now, there is not a timeline about when the store will reopen. A third party cleaning company has been called and Aldi said it hopes to reopen the store this week.
"The health and well-being of our customers and employees is our highest priority," Aldi said in a statement to the public about the store's COVID exposure. "We've implemented many safety protocols and procedures throughout the year to reduce exposure to COVID-19."
The CDC recommends everyone should stay home if they're sick; limit their visits to grocery stores; wear a mask while shopping; and order online if they can.
While shoppers are only in stores for a limited time, it's the workers who are there all day. Grocery store employees have become front line workers amid the pandemic, and have faced the brunt of contraction.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union said just in the first month of the pandemic, 30 of its members died from COVID-19, and another 3,000 have had to stay home sick with symptoms.
This is not the first time a grocery store in the DMV has been closed temporarily because employees contracted COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, multiple local grocery stores faced this same issue, even before mask mandates were strictly in place. A Giant grocery store employee in Largo, Maryland died from coronavirus in March 2020.
To learn more about what Aldi is doing at its stores to combat the coronavirus, click here.