Walmart establishes emergency leave policy after associate tests positive for coronavirus in Kentucky

Employees will receive two weeks pay if they are under quarantine or their region is under quarantine

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and employer of 1.4 million hourly workers, on Tuesday announced its first incident of a store associate testing positive for the coronavirus. The employee, who works at a Walmart store in Cynthiana, Ky., was the first to test positive in the state of Kentucky and is receiving medical care and her condition is improving, according to an internal company memo. As of Tuesday afternoon, six cases of the virus have been diagnosed in Kentucky.

Walmart also announced that it is deploying an emergency employee leave program, saying that associates will receive up to two weeks pay if they have to be quarantined or are diagnosed with the illness. If store, warehouse club or distribution center employees are not able to return to work after two weeks, up to 26 weeks of additional pay could be provided for both full- and part-time workers. The policy covers both Walmart and Sam’s Club workers no matter when they were hired, according to the company.

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