Five employees at Costco store in Vaughan test positive for COVID-19

Cp24.com
April 27, 2020
Chris Fox

Five employees at a Costco location in Vaughan have now tested positive for COVID-19.

Vaughan mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua confirmed the cases at the store near Highway 7 and Weston Road in a message posted to Twitter on Sunday night, noting that the risk to customers is believed to be low.

News of the positive cases at the Costco location comes just days after a Longo’s location at 9200 Weston Road in Vaughan reopened after closing for two weeks following positive tests by eight staff members.

In his message posted to Twitter, Bevilacqua said that York Region Public Health has done a “thorough investigation” at the store and continues to work with Costco management to ensure appropriate infection control measures are being taken, including cleaning and disinfecting.”

So far two onsite inspections have already been completed at the store with a third planned for this week.

Those inspections, Bevilacqua said, have resulted in a number of precautionary measures, including the installation of barriers to ensure that customers are physically distancing from each other in the line to get into the store and the use of security guards to enforce physical distancing.

“At this time, the risk to Costco shoppers at this location is considered low,” he said. “All residents are encouraged to stay home when possible, limit trips outside the home, practice good hand hygiene and maintain physical distancing of at least two metres when in public,” he said.

It should be noted that of the five positive cases confirmed at the Vaughan Costco, two are close contacts of one another.

There had been 1,405 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in York Region as of Monday morning, including 82 deaths.