This is the most dangerous place in a supermarket

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Covid-19: should supermarkets close to avoid infections? 2:14

(CNN Business) - Sandra Kunz wanted to continue working as a Walmart cashier, even when the coronavirus spread.

Despite suffering from lung disease, the 72-year-old woman in Aurora, Colorado, needed to receive her salary, according to her sister Paula Spellman. Her husband, Gus, had an injury and was out of work, so the couple had outstanding bills to pay.

Kunz died April 20 of coronavirus-related complications, his sister said. Gus, who was also infected, passed away two days before his wife.

Although it is unclear how the marriage contracted the virus, Spellman noted that his sister had expressed concern about Walmart customers coughing at the register.

“I would have liked her not to work there. I wish he had taken a license, "said Spellman. "It makes me angry because she should have been more protected," he insisted.

Sandra and Gus Kunz. Sandra was a cashier at Walmart in Aurora, Colorado. The couple died of coronavirus, her sister noted.

Walmart says it has instituted multiple security measures in its stores, including the provision of masks and the installation of sneeze guards, or perspex barriers, to protect its workers from the coronavirus.

The cash register has become the most dangerous place in supermarkets, according to public health and safety experts for workers. Every product that ATMs touch, scan and pack has already been handled by customers and other employees. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that a person may become infected with covid-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus.

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The job also involves being close to customers just one arm away all day, instead of the 2 meters recommended by the CDC, making social distancing almost impossible, these experts added. Risks to buyers also increase as they move toward the cash register. If an ATM is infected it could infect customers.

"The ATM location continues to be the most dangerous as each customer passes through this area and remains there for a period of time while groceries move across the counter," explained Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Riverside.

"The biggest exhibition"

The virus can spread among people who interact closely, even if they show no symptoms, according to the CDC.

"The highest-risk workers are those who have the most direct contact with other people," said Brian Brown-Cashdollar, program director at the Western New York Occupational Safety and Health Council, an advocacy group for the safety of Workers. ATMs "have the highest exposure."

Spellman indicated that his sister expressed her concern about working behind the cash register without a mask. Walmart argued that the masks were available to workers since the end of March, including the Kunz store, and on April 20 it began requiring employees to wear them.

A Walmart spokesperson said: “Our hearts go out to Sandy Kunz and her loved ones. Its loss shows the devastating impact of the covid-19 virus. ”

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Walmart added that in addition to offering masks to its employees, it also took other steps in early March, such as adding social distancing marks and cleaning the surfaces of cash registers more frequently. Later, in the first days of April, the company installed sneeze guards and began limiting the number of customers on the premises.

Retailers have stepped up their security efforts as CDC's guide to the virus evolves. In addition to Walmart, Target, Kroger, Whole Foods and others, they have installed sneeze guards at the cash registers and added social distancing marks in the ranks. Warehouses are also limiting the number of customers within stores and frequently disinfecting payment stations. Additionally, companies have expanded payment options that do not require contact so that customers do not have to touch screens or enter their passwords.

However, some public health experts and worker advocates believe the measures are not stringent enough to protect tellers, other employees, and customers. For example, major retailers such as Kroger, Target, and Whole Foods do not require people who come shopping to wear face masks, except for states and cities where the measure is mandatory. And workers also complain that the requirements are often not met.

Sneeze and self-pay protectors

While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which belongs to the Department of Labor, points out that stores should consider opening other cash registers to keep workers safe, this is not a requirement and many stores do not implement the measure, warned John Grant , president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in California, which represents 20,000 supermarket workers. About 27% of local employees who got sick from the virus have been ATMs, Grant said.

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist at Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health, said tellers "need N95 masks as much as health workers." He believes that all stores should also provide their ATMs with face shields, because many coronavirus carriers are asymptomatic. In China, stores are disinfecting cash, and the United States "should do it sometime, too."

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Cashiers also ensured that limits on the number of customers within stores are implemented unevenly and that it is difficult to keep people separated in lines. At the Walmart where Kunz worked in Aurora, for example, the local public health department briefly ordered the store to close, which was due in part to complaints of "lack of social distancing" and "too many people in the store at the same time. weather". Since then, the department allowed the reopening of the premises and said it has "good safety and health measures."

The plexiglass barriers that companies installed are of limited help, some tellers noted, because customers lean over or around them to speak to them.

"They don't protect us adequately," said a Target ATM in Louisiana, affiliated with the Target Workers Unite. The employee requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. "There is a considerable gap in the plexiglass in each cash register," he added.

A Target representative declined to comment on the Plexiglas, but said: "We have introduced dozens of new security measures in our stores," which include reminding customers through speakers to be aware of the rules for social distancing.

"In any situation, if a team member feels uncomfortable with performing a specific task, we encourage them to have a conversation with their leader to determine if there are alternative activities they could do," the company said.

Companies have expanded the use of self-pay in recent years, but this also carries risks. "Self-payment can make physical distancing a challenge because of the frequent need for customer assistance," the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in its guidelines.

Workers must clean the stations after each customer, employees explained, and handling alcohol purchases is especially difficult. This is because a worker has to ask the customer for identification, the customer must remove a mask, and then the worker must check to make sure they match.

There are other concerns, too: "In self-pay, customers tend to surround you when they need help, even with reminders of social distancing," said a Target worker in North Carolina who is at the cash register part-time and also helps with self-payment. This employee spoke on condition of anonymity. Target declined to comment.

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