Coronavirus: Grocery worker who insisted on working to help the elderly dies from Covid-19

‘Nobody’s helping the workers to do their jobs to help them’

A grocery store worker with cerebral palsy, who kept working to help the elderly, has died after contracting Covid-19.

Leilani Jordan, from Maryland, insisted on still going to work at a Giant Food store in Largo to help the elderly with their shopping, her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, told CNN.

Ms Shepherd told the outlet Ms Jordan said “It’s just crazy here at work ... but somebody’s got to do it.”

She added that despite her disability, the 27-year-old “was doing everything for them. Helping them put their groceries in their walkers, to helping them get into lifts.”

Ms Jordan became ill in March and died last week after a spell in hospital.

In an emotional interview, Ms Shepherd told MSNBC that more should be done to protect grocery workers during the pandemic.

“The education that they should have been given in regards to the coronavirus and the distancing. How can you say you’re not going to help somebody that can barely walk to put the grocery in the grocery cart,” she said.

“Nobody helped my baby. Nobody’s helping the workers. Nobody’s helping the workers to do their jobs to help them, but they’re making the money,” Ms Shepherd added.

Ms Jordan’s last day at work was 16 March and a spokesperson for Giant Food told CNN that they were saddened when they heard the news.

“We can only imagine the heartache they are experiencing and have offered our support during this difficult time,” the company said.

In recent weeks, grocery store workers in the US have been forced to clean up dirty gloves and masks discarded by shoppers, amid the outbreak.

Linda St Denis, an employee at a Safeway in California told Business Insider that “the parking lots are littered with gloves constantly, every day.”

Ms Denis said that grocery store workers are being put at risk, as “who knows how long the virus lasts on these gloves. It’s maddening”.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 454,304 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 16,267.