Retail workers are asked to go to work while most workers have been sent home with unemployment benefits because of the risk of infection and spread. Please take the following actions, in addition to allowing only curbside delivery rather than in-store shopping, to protect these at high risk workers by: (1) Ensuring that if they do not feel safe at their work and think it is in their best interest to not work until the Coronavirus danger has passed, they can get unemployment benefits and be ensured that they will have a job when it is over; (2) Until curbside delivery can be instituted in a very few days, limit the number of customers shopping to a handful at any one time, and limit the amount of time they are in the store to 20 minutes; (3) Mandate curbside delivery; (4) Mandate that workers have protective gear; (5) Mandate a protective barrier between customers and cashiers; (6) Mandate that managers enforce social distancing between customers, inappropriately bringing children in and lack of supervision of children, socializing in the shopping aisles, sitting on furniture at Big Lots, and that all workers have the authority to enforce these if a manager is not where the infraction is happening; (7) Mandate that children not be allowed in stores because they are spreading germs, putting things in their mouths and putting us all at risk; (8) Mandate that stores like Big Lots and Walgreens that sell food, healthcare and cleaning items rope off the other areas such as furniture and home decor where people are "leisure shopping", visiting in clusters and sitting on furniture; (9) Mandate that those who must disinfect unpurchased items and shelving have adequate supplies and complete protective gear such as hazmat suits in addition to gloves and cleaners; (10) Stop stores from sending out ads like the Big Lots "Family Fun" ad and Walgreens "Grand Opening" ad in Morehead, Ky. on March 26, encouraging large numbers of people to come in and compete for scarce items; and (11) Mandate that continuing to work in retail is voluntary, acknowledged as "first responder' work and rewarded with higher wages and other benefits including paid sick leave. In addition, take whatever other steps are needed to keep retail workers safe.

These actions are important because, despite the excellent actions Gov. Beshear has taken and the large number of people who have called and written to the state Coronavirus hotlines telling of these problems, there has been little or no change in these behaviors. It is not fair to send most people home from work with pay and require others to go to work and risk their lives and the lives of their senior and at-risk family members.  We know little about how the virus spreads, how long it lives and what protective measures protect workers 100%. Therefore, we must take as many precautions as we possibly can. As Gov. Beshear says repeatedly, let's hope when it is all over we have taken too many rather than too few steps to protect people. It is not right to ask people to risk their lives so others can shop for items that are not required for survival. People say they do not know what they need until they see it. If you do not know you need something, you don't really need it.  Because store owners continue to place profits over people, Gov. Beshear must take whatever steps are necessary to protect these workers. Gov. Beshear has done an excellent job thus far and is the person to take these additional steps to protect retail workers.