145 Employees in One Washington State Costco Catch COVID, and the Store Is Still Open

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/145-employees-in-one-washington-state-costco-catch-covid-and-the-store-is-still-open?ref=home

145 Employees in One Washington State Costco Catch COVID, and the Store Is Still Open

COME AGAIN
Jamie Ross. Reporter
Published Dec. 31, 2020 8:55AM ET

How badly do you want that rotisserie chicken? A coronavirus outbreak at a Costco in Washington state has reportedly seen 145 of its 383 staff test positive for the disease—but the store is still open to any card-carrying customers who are bold enough to step inside. Local network KOMO News reports the outbreak hit the Yakima County store and that the number of cases rocketed over the past week. Just 68 people had tested positive on Thursday, but that shot up to 145 by Monday. Even though county health officials have said they expect that number to rise further as more employees are tested, the store has been allowed to remain open after implementing some unspecified recommendations to mitigate the spread.

[Hugin]

1. !

How many employees are there in a single Costco?

[niyad]

4. That one has 383.

[Hugin]

6. So, with a little less than half of the employees with the 'rona.

I'm going to say it's a total event once everyone outside of the back office is tested.

I wonder if this is an effect of the new more infectious-er virus strain which has been allowed to develop via the utterly stupid 'herd immunity' cop-out?

[samplegirl]

2. Jesus!

No end to this nightmare!

[niyad]

3. I thought Costco was more responsible than this.

[Hugin]

5. Now that, unfortunately, we've all become experts at living during plague times...

I've learned that relying on conditions in any chain being consistent is a mistake. It all boils down to the local store management as to how thoroughly the protocols are observed.

I will reserve judgement in this case until all of the facts are known. It's possible the infections were caused by a source outside of the store's control via shipping or customer base.

However, I've been avoiding highly trafficked stores for some time now.

[Wounded Bear]

8. As I say in reply #7, Yakima is in the red half of the state. nt

[Hugin]

11. Certainly goes a long way toward explaining it.

Some folks simply aren't with the program.

[Wounded Bear]

12. Yep, rural, very Trumpian "Freedumb" country...nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. Yep

The people I know who've been exposed to the virus in Washington have all been on the east side of the Cascades.

[niyad]

13. The only store that I go to is my grocery store. Mgmt and staff vigilant about protocols, and most

customers are sane (this is a bluer area). Would not trust the customers in the very red northeast part of town, no matter how vigilant the staff.

[haele]

9. When I was growing up, Yakima was a major processing town for agriculture.

Very red and rural, and a lot of friction between the locals and the nearby reservation.
When we lived in Seattle, everyone I ever knew from Yakima considered themselves either a hard nosed realists or real Americans, like us "city folks didn't know what hard work really is, what it really takes to keep a country going..."

It wouldn't at all suprise me if that attitude hadn't changed over 45 years, not would it suprise me to hear that the store managers, big and small, wouldn't enforce freedumb gutting public health measures.

On edit - as Costco sells coffins, among their other service products, I do wonder if the local manager feels the need to get some of them moving. I'm wondering if the store profit margin on them is any good? Laz says no, he used to manage a major chain store.

Haele

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. The coffins Costco sells are mail order FWIW

You order it and it's delivered to the funeral home that's embalming and burying the body. I bought my mom's casket from them 9 years ago.

[Wounded Bear]

7. FYI, Yakima is in the red half of the state...

Just sayin'

[AllaN01Bear]

10. the bank branch that i goto do my banking with shut down for 2 weeks

because a patron came in with covid indications . everyone on the staff went into self isolation. pox to costco.

[brewens]

14. I won't go to our local Costco in Clarkston, WA until I am vaccinated. I bought a small chest

freezer a couple months ago and as soon as I had it running, I went to Costco and slammed it. I couldn't wait to get out of that place. I usually consider myself to be a pretty chill dude, but I was stressed after being in that crowd.

I went in and straight back to the meat department and right away, there's a moran in a Trump 2020 mask with it's nose hanging out. Clarkston is adjacent to Lewiston, ID where I live which is loaded with anti-maskers, so I knew a lot of the customers were only wearing masks because they were forced to and high risk for being infected.

I spent $200 on meat alone. For one guy, I figured that should hold me until it's safe to go back.

[BusyBeingBest]

17. Businesses aren't shutting down anymore when there's an outbreak.

Remember last spring when stores, factories, meatpackers, etc. shut down and cleaned/sanitized when even one employee got infected? Those times seem quaint now. My husband's been working through repeated outbreaks among his coworkers, they just send home the positive/sick ones now.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

18. Seems to be a lot of Eastern Washington Counties with high infection rates

https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/washington-state-coronavirus-case-data-15832895.php

More so than many of the urban counties in the Seattle area.