Lowe's Temporary Closure

Lowe's in Columbus, MS will be be closing due to a Covid- 19 positive employee.

Work.

In columbus the lowe's is closed after an employee tests positive for covid-19.

Cleaning crews were called in after mayor robert smith shut it down.

As some employees tell our bobby martinez, it was known the person some experiencing symptoms. "the store is now closed."

"they put everybody at risk."

An empty parking lot was the site for lowe's customers on thursday.

The popular home improvement store was forced to close up shop wednesday night after an employee tested positive for the virus.

Columbus mayor robert smith says his office started receiving calls claiming that store supervisors were trying to keep the positive covid-19 test under wraps.

"an anonymous person called to my office and talked to my secretary and asked her if she would pass this word on to me that a person was tested positive for the coronavirus and that the supervisor hadn't passed it on to the employees."

Smith notified columbus police.

He says a store manager admitted to an officer that an employee did test positive tuesday.

Employees, that wanted to remain anonymous, reached out to wcbi.

They say their co-worker told other employees that she had the virus.

They believe management ignored the warning signs.

Annonyous employee 1 sot she got a text message from the lady herself and she was telling her you know that she had the corona she had a corona and she's going to be out for a while annonyous employee 2 sot it was something that i felt that could've been prevented because you know once i got out to the employees that this employee did have it she was showing symptoms weeks now and she stopped coming to work and saw the word made it back to the management and they just completely deny the rumor.

Smith says lowe's must clean the store, according to cdc guidelines.

"i agree that if they follow through with it what they agreed to they need to open back up tomorrow morning at regular time which is at 6 o'clock."

Lowe's corporate office issued a statement this evening saying the employee last worked march 31st and that the store has been properly cleaned per cdc guidelines.

The store will reopen tomorrow morning.

They will also be closing nightly at 7 pm to give employees more time to thoroughly clean the store.

You can read their full statement on our website..

Wcbi.com summary: