Walmart, H-E-B Shopper Tests Positive for COVID-19

A person in their 80s who shopped at the Bulverde-area H-E-B and Spring Branch/Bulverde Walmart has tested positive for COVID-19, Comal County reported this morning.

It’s the first case of so-called “community spread.” The individual is the ninth confirmed case in the county.

“Until this point, all of our positive cases had traveled to places experiencing an active COVID-19 outbreak before developing symptoms,” said Cheryl Fraser, director of public health. “This patient has tested positive without leaving Comal County, which means COVID-19 is spreading in our community.”

The patient is in their 80s and lives in the Bulverde area, and reported visiting the Bulverde H-E-B sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on March 10 and March 12, and the Bulverde Walmart sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on March 16 before becoming symptomatic. The individual is currently hospitalized outside of the county.

As of 7 p.m. Thursday, Comal County’s Office of Public Health has received reports of the following test information:

• 125 tests conducted
• 9 positive tests
• 78 negative tests
• 38 results still pending

Information about COVID-19, as well as coronavirus-related county office closures and restrictions, is available at www.comalcountytx.com/covid19.

Residents with questions or concerns about the novel coronavirus can call the county’s dedicated COVID-19 hotline, 830-221-1120, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

HEB Statement

In an email to MyCanyonLake.com, H-E-B spokesperson Julie Bedingfield said:

“To protect the health of our Partners and customers, H-E-B is taking aggressive action with sanitation, hygiene and proper social distancing at our stores and across our company. Our H-E-B COVID Action Team of Partners in every store are dedicated to ensuring Partners and customers are practicing proper social distancing, sanitizing carts, metering customers into the store, and maintaining a high frequency of sanitation. Additionally, we are in full cooperation with health and government officials at various levels to make the best decisions regarding the health and safety of our Partners, customers and the communities we serve.

“H-E-B stores are thoroughly sanitized daily and hard surfaces are sanitized at a high frequency throughout the day, including deep sanitization each night. We are taking sanitation, hygiene and social distancing very seriously, including other measures like the installation of sneeze guards at all our checkstands and floor decals to space customers in the store. You can read about our sanitation policies here:https://newsroom.heb.com/store-hours-and-operations/

Walmart’s Statement:

Walmart’s Casey Staheli, senior manager, national media relations said in an email to MyCanyonLake.com:

“As we’ve announced before, we have enacted cleaning and sanitizing protocols with guidance from the CDC and Walmart’s Chief Medical Officer, and we will continue taking any and all measures necessary to ensure the well-being of our associates and customers.

“Those steps include delivering updated procedures to associates through videos and photos, as well as schedules for cleaning to help provide clear guidance. We have a voice-activated app called Ask Sam that associates can use to ask for cleaning guides for any area of the store, and our stores have adjusted operating hours to 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. to help associates restock shelves while continuing to clean and sanitize the building.

“Some of our responses so far include updating our leave policies and installing sneeze guards and social distancing decals.