Walmart temporarily closed almost 60 stores across COVID-19 hotspots in the United States in December to sanitize them against the virus, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters. The stores across Texas and New Jersey were closed for two days for cleaning “to present a safe and clean in-store environment for our associates and customers,” a company spokesperson said. They did not comment on whether or not staff at the locations had tested positive for COVID-19. “We’ve been closely monitoring our stores across the country, making the decision to temporarily close locations on a store-by-store basis through a collection of market-related data,” the spokesperson said. According to its website, Walmart has 4,742 U.S. locations in total. The company adopted a policy at the start of the pandemic of temporarily closing stores overnight to clean them, in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. “We continue to follow and communicate the CDC’s recommended guidance on behaviors like …