Walmart is cutting hours at nearly half its US stores amid the coronavirus outbreak

• Walmart is cutting operating hours at thousands of stores to give employees additional time to restock shelves and clean amid the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Saturday.
• "Unless they already have more reduced hours, stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. until further notice," the company said in a statement.
• The changes will affect about 2,200 of Walmart's 4,700 stores in the US.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Walmart is cutting operating hours at nearly half its US stores amid the coronavirus outbreak, the company said Saturday.

All Walmart supercenters and Neighborhood Market stores will now close by 11 p.m. to provide additional time for employees to restock shelves and clean.

"Unless they already have more reduced hours, stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. until further notice," the company said in a statement.

The changes will affect about 2,200 of Walmart's 4,700 stores in the US.

"This will help ensure associates are able to stock the products our customers are looking for and to perform cleaning and sanitizing," Walmart Chief Operating Office Dacona Smith said in a post to the company's website. "Stores currently operating under more reduced hours (for example they regularly close at 10 p.m. or open at 7 a.m.) will keep their current hours of operation."

Walmart employees will continue to work the hours and shifts they are scheduled and the company's trucking fleet will continue to deliver products to stores on their regular schedules, he said.