An employee of the Lowe's store on Gunbarrel Road tested positive for COVID-19, and is in quarantine and receiving care, according to a company spokeswoman. The employee was last at work on March 26, Sarah Lively said.
"The well-being of our associates and customers is Lowe's priority, and we have confirmed a COVID-19 case of a Lowe's associate at a Chattanooga store, located at 2180 Gunbarrel Road," Lively wrote in an email.
"The store remains open and has been extensively cleaned per CDC guidelines. In an abundance of caution, associates who had worked closely with this individual over a period of time were placed on a paid leave," she wrote.
The store had taken several new operational measures. Some of those include:
- Closing all stores at 7 p.m. daily to ensure additional time to replenish essential products and thoroughly clean and sanitize our stores daily.
- Making masks and gloves available to all associates in the workplace who want them.
- Added overhead announcements, store signage, and customer and associate guidelines that emphasize the importance of social distancing.
- Enhanced social distancing protocols by adding dedicated social distancing ambassadors responsible for monitoring customer flow in garden centers and front-end areas and to enforce customer limits to allow proper social distancing.
- Developed an app to implement a new customer limit protocol, available now on associates' handheld devices. Each store manager can now monitor foot traffic and limit entrance based on CDC and local guidelines.
- Made substantial updates to our store floor layouts to further support the CDC's guidelines for social distancing, such as opening up aisle space by removing displays.
- Installed customized Plexiglass shields at all points of sale to protect our cashiers and customer service associates working the return desk.
- Increased third-party cleaning shifts to provide incremental cleaning in our stores, beyond already enhanced daily cleaning efforts.