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Amazon worker at Salem warehouse infected with COVID-19

An image of the coronavirus from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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An employee at Amazon’s massive Salem warehouse recently was diagnosed with with COVID-19.

“We are supporting the individual, who is recovering,” Amazon said in a statement Sunday. “We are following guidelines from health officials and medical experts and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site.”

The company didn’t respond to questions about when the diagnosis was made or what specific actions were taken at the shipping center, in southeast Salem at 4775 Depot Ct. S.E. The shipping center opened last fall and at the time was to employ 1,000.

The case was first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

As of Sunday, the Oregon Health Authority reported that 109 people in Marion County have tested positive for the respiratory disease and three have died. Another 972 have tested negative for the disease. Marion County has the second highest count of infected individuals in Oregon, following Washington County.

Health authorities have released only sparing details about infected individuals, declining to identify the cities in which they live or generally their circumstances. Among those confirmed otherwise to have been infected are a Salem teaching assistant, three Cherriots drivers, and an employee at the downtown Salem headquarters of the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Amazon said its practice at its work sites is to advise workers who have been in contact with an infected colleague to stay out of the workplace and quarantine at home with pay for two weeks.

In some instances, a building will be closed for a deep cleaning that apparently didn’t happen at the Salem warehouse. The company said its practice is to review when an infected person was at the job and whether the area in which they work has been routinely deep cleaned to judge the need to close.