{"id":17749,"date":"2020-04-06T17:23:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T09:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-says-three-workers-in-kent-have-tested-positive-for-coronavirus\/"},"modified":"2020-04-06T17:23:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T09:23:31","slug":"jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-says-three-workers-in-kent-have-tested-positive-for-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-says-three-workers-in-kent-have-tested-positive-for-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says three workers in Kent have tested positive for coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New
Engineers work on the New Shepard suborbital spaceship\u2019s crew capsule at Blue Origin\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three employees at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture have tested positive for coronavirus and are now in quarantine, a spokeswoman for the company says.<\/p>\n

One case came to light on Friday, and two other cases were confirmed over the weekend, said Linda Mills, Blue Origin\u2019s vice president of communications.<\/p>\n

Mills discussed the first case in a statement emailed to GeekWire on Friday night;:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis individual was last working in our Kent factory on Thursday, March 26, and has been at home since then. Blue Origin\u2019s Human Resources team will remain in contact with him throughout the recovery period to make sure he is getting the care and support he needs while he quarantines and seeks medical care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health and safety of this individual \u2014 and the Blue Origin team \u2014 is our first priority and main concern. We are following all CDC guidelines at all of our facilities, and have implemented additional procedures to ensure the ongoing safety of our employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Word of that detection came a day after reports emerged that some Blue Origin employees were concerned about plans to send a team down to the company\u2019s West Texas launch complex for an uncrewed test flight of the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft. The concerns focused not only on the potential travel risk for employees, but also on the potential for an employee with an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 to pass along the virus unwittingly to residents in the area surrounding the launch site.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus Live Updates: The latest COVID-19 developments in Seattle and the world of tech<\/h4>\n

In response to those reports, Blue Origin said it\u2019s doing everything it can \u201cto safeguard our workforce and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many other aerospace companies, Blue Origin is considered an essential business and has been exempted from Washington state\u2019s stay-at-home order. Nevertheless, Blue Origin says it has been emphasizing telework arrangements, conducting deep cleaning of its facilities, eliminating non-essential visits, minimizing travel and practicing social distancing.<\/p>\n

We learned about the first COVID-19 case from sources who also expressed concern about other employees who might have come in contact with the infected worker. Mills addressed that concern in a follow-up email to GeekWire:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOur Human Resources team interviewed the infected employee to assess risk to others and have contacted the small number of employees who were in contact with him. For those employees who may have been in close contact with the employee, HR has directed them to self-quarantine at home for 14 days. Upon learning of his confirmation today, we conducted another deep cleaning of the areas he visited (on top of the deep cleanings that were done earlier this week for unrelated reasons). We will continue to do deep cleanings of our workspaces, as warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The next two cases involved a married couple \u2014 with one working at the factory in Kent, Wash., and the other working at the O\u2019Neill headquarters building across the street, Mills said today during a follow-up call. One of the employees was at work as recently as Friday.<\/p>\n

Like the employee who was involved in the earlier case, those two employees are seeking medical care and will remain in contact with Blue Origin during their recovery period. Mills said other employees who came in contact with the patients have been directed to self-quarantine for 14 days, and the areas where they worked are being deep-cleaned.<\/p>\n

This is an updated version of a report that was first published at 10:12 p.m. PT April 6.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineers work on the New Shepard suborbital spaceship\u2019s crew capsule at Blue Origin\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash. (Credit: Blue Origin) Three employees at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture have tested positive for coronavirus and are now in quarantine, a spokeswoman for the company says. One case came to light on Friday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,2010,4502],"class_list":["post-17749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-coronavirus","tag-kent"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}