A Glasgow politician has asked for a meeting with the manager of a major Glasgow supermarket which has experienced an outbreak of Covid amongst staff amid concerns over customer numbers.
SNP MSP Bob Doris said he had not been reassured by a response to a letter he sent asking if the Tesco Extra store in Maryhill had re-introduced protocols that we in place in the previous national lockdown.
The company has confirmed that a number of employees tested positive for the virus.
The supermarket chain also last week confirmed the deaths of two employees at its Greenock branch in Inverclyde.
In his letter Mr Doris writes that staff at the Maryhill store had reported that safety had been improved but that 'more needs to be done'.
READ MORE: Coronavirus death toll surpasses 7000 in Scotland
He raises concern that the supermarket is estimating customer numbers and asks if a queuing system will be re-introduced.
Concerns have been growing over the safety of supermarket staff with some warning that employees are the 'forgotten key workers'.
Tesco has joined a number of supermarkets including Morrisons and Sainsbury's which are banning shoppers who refuse to wear face masks from entering their stores.
The First Minister said, in response to a question tabled by Mr Doris today that supermarket operators and retailers "must ensure that they have the right mitigations in place" in order to help prevent the virus spreading.
Mr Doris writes: "I remain concerned that there has been no information provided regarding what is considered to be an acceptable capacity within the store and whether capacity has been reduced following the outbreak at the store.
"You mention perhaps reducing capacity based on customer flow.
"That is not the same as reducing overall capacity. Has this happened and can you provide details?
"Nor have any details as to how capacity is monitored been shared with me.
"I also asked about how Tesco monitors infection rates across stores to assess what additional supports may be required at particular stores.
"I have not had a response to this either."
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon tightens lockdown rules including on takeaways and alcohol
He added: "Are Tesco going to re-introduce the queuing system at peak times and count actual customer numbers as opposed to what I understand are likely to be estimates of store capacity as currently happens?"
A Tesco spokesman said: "The safety of our colleagues, customers and suppliers remains our number one priority and we are working with local public health authorities, following all Government guidance and taking the relevant precautions.
"We have extensive measures across all of our stores to help keep everyone safe, including protective screens at every checkout, social distancing signage and regular cleaning.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here