Postal Service says coronavirus cases limited to one Santa Rosa employee, but not aware of any other testing

A Santa Rosa mail carrier who tested positive for the coronavirus is one of dozens of U.S. postal workers across the nation sickened by the infectious virus.

But while a regional USPS spokesman said he was not aware Tuesday of any other cases in Northern California, he also couldn’t say whether any colleagues of the affected worker at the McBride Lane mail system annex have been tested or have been directed to self-isolate.

USPS spokesman Augustine Ruiz Jr. on Tuesday declined to comment specifically on how the postal service handled treatment of the worker who tested positive for COVID-19, a case the service announced Monday. The agency also declined to identify the worker’s mail route.

The postal service couldn’t verify that the employee had symptoms “because the employee did not exhibit them at work,” Ruiz said. “If an employee exhibits any symptoms at work, we take the necessary precautions to protect all workers.”

Ruiz also said that the postal service was not aware of any tests of other employees at the north Santa Rosa facility: “There is no confirmation that any other tests were done for other employees at the McBride facility.”

Physical mail is an essential service and has continued to operate as tens of thousands in the U.S. test positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The USPS, as well as private carriers like FedEx and UPS, have announced hiring sprees in recent weeks as more of the nation is placed under orders to stay home, leading to a rise in home deliveries. At least one mail carrier, based in New York City, has died of complications caused by the coronavirus.

The postal service, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Surgeon General, has said the risk of contracting coronavirus through the mail is low.

USPS has been providing workers with sanitary wipes, masks and gloves for optional use transporting mail on their routes, Ruiz said, and it’s asking customers to keep their distance from postal workers as they make their rounds - particularly as the calendar flips over.

“The end of the month is when federal subsistence checks arrive in the mail as well as necessary products being delivered by our carriers,” Ruiz said. “We realize our customers are anxious to receive their important mail, but we ask that they let our carriers make their deliveries while maintaining a social distance.”

Ruiz acknowledged that the postal service is not directly sanitizing the mail itself, noting that many people are taking precautions to do so themselves and that packages are mostly sorted automatically.

“We get millions and millions of pieces of mail a day, and it runs through automated machines,” Ruiz said. “Very few hands actually touch that mail.”