South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa closing for 2 weeks after store employee tests positive for coronavirus

South Coast Plaza (Photo by © Robert Holmes/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa announced Monday that it would be closing its doors for at least 14 days after learning a mall employee tested positive for coronavirus.

The retail shopping center told its tenants it would shut at 7 p.m. Monday, March 16 with plans to reopen on March 31.

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In a memo to its tenants, the mall didn't identify which store was involved in the virus discovery, but mall representatives noted it closed Sunday evening.

"It is with sadness that we report that an employee in one of Our Stores at the Center received news last night of testing positive for COVID-19. The store closed yesterday evening.

We learned from the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) that no tracking of this individual will take place There is now laboratory evidence that COVID-19 is likely spreading in the Orange County community at large and thus there is less to the places or people visited by any one victim of COVID-19. The focus is now on the community spread of the virus We understand that closures of public gathering places in Orange County now need to happen as soon as possible for a chance to meaningfully stem the COVID•19 pandemic

In light of this news, we have made the difficult decision to close the Center to the public effective as Of 7 pm this evening for a period of 14 days. We plan to open again on Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

We will work through the details Of this over the course of the next few hours and provide you with updates."

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