Woolworths: Eight further Melbourne stores impacted by COVID

Eight more Woolworth stores around Victoria were deep cleaned overnight after staff members and contractors tested positive for coronavirus.

A swathe of Woolworths stores in and around Melbourne were deep cleaned overnight after employees or contractors tested positive for COVID-19.

That means a total of 11 Woolies branches have potentially been exposed to coronavirus in just 24 hours.

This morning, the company said its stores in Westfield Southland , Blackburn North, Cranbourne North and Sebastopol, the latter close to Ballarat, were deep cleaned. On Thursday, the retail chain said it would do the same for stores in Cranbourne East, Point Cook, St Helena and St Kilda.

“As a food retailer, we already have very high standards of cleaning and hygiene in place. As an extra precautionary measure the stores underwent an additional deep clean overnight,” the retailer said on its website.

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Six Melbourne Woolies and one near Ballarat were closed for cleaning. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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“While the risk of transmission to customers and team members and service partner providers is low, the safety and wellbeing of the local community is our priority.”

The company said some stores closed early for cleaning while in others the cleaning took place during normal non-trade hours.

The stores have now reopened and Woolies has said it is safe to shop in them.

Coles said on Thursday a staff member tested positive who worked at a store in Cardinia Lakes. Coles said that the employee had not been to the store since July 19 however, and regular cleaning had taken place since that time.