Drug store chain CVS is reassuring consumers that the company’s policy does not prohibit local pharmacy employees from notifying customers if their prescription was filled by an employee who tested positive for COVID-19.
The public statements followed a slew of negative publicity after a CVS district leader in Georgia told employees to not only remove prescriptions from shelves if the script had been filled by someone who tested positive for coronavirus, but also not to notify customers who had already picked up their prescriptions and may be affected.
An email from a CVS pharmacy technician in Georgia leaked the internal correspondence and it was first reported by Business Insider reported. BI also reported that employees at the store in question were threatened with disciplinary action if they tried to contact customers.
CVS Health has since said that the policy was not a corporate policy, did not originate from the corporate office, and was ‘not indicative’ of a company-wide policy. Company spokesman Michael DeAngelis said CVS policy requires that employees quarantine and that any medication handled by someone who tested positive be replaced.
“It is not our policy to prohibit our pharmacies from informing patients if their prescription was filled when an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 worked in the pharmacy,” the CVS spokesman said in a statement released to Fox News. “For patients who’ve already received their prescriptions, we cooperate with local departments of health and provide patient contact information as requested. In these situations, patients – if they choose to – can return and replace medications.”
CVS also permits employees to continue working if they have been in contact with someone who tested positive, so long as the employee remains asymptomatic, wears a surgical mask, self-monitors for symptoms, and have their temperature taken before and after every shift for 14 days.
The Georgia incident comes on the heels of fourteen other CVS employees in a number of states reporting to Business Insider that CVS has been bullying staff and disregarding safety concerns during the pandemic.
