SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ A worker at Safeway's largest distribution center in the Northern California city of Tracy has died of complications from COVID-19, and Gov. Gavin Newsom says 51 people there have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The grocery chain confirmed the death and reports of the virus among its roughly 1,700 employees at the 2.2 million-square-foot center, which is 50 miles east of San Francisco and 50 miles south of Sacramento.
"We were saddened to learn that an associate at our Tracy Distribution Center has passed away due to complications related to COVID-19," a Safeway spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday. "Our hearts are heavy, and our thoughts are with that associate's family. This is difficult for the entire Safeway team."
The statement goes on to say that Safeway is working to help the victim's family "during this difficult time through the Safeway Foundation's We Care program � a charitable program designed to support our associates during unanticipated financial hardships and emergencies."
The man's family identified the man to The Modesto Bee on Thursday as Pedro Zuniga, 52, of Turlock. He died Monday.
'It happened to our family'
Zuniga's son, Jose Valencia, told The Modesto Bee that people need to be serious about COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
"I was one of those that, you know, (thought) it doesn't happen. It just happened to other people. And it happened to our family," he said.
Zuniga, who became a U.S. citizen decades ago after emigrating from Mexico, is one of four people in Stanislaus County to die of the disease.
Valencia, who lives in Georgia, told the paper he is heartbroken because he wasn't able to see his father before he died. Safety protocols also barred Zuniga's wife, other four children and three grandchildren from visiting, though they were able to speak with him via telephone before his death Monday night.
Zuniga's family is accepting funeral donations on GoFundMe. The family has been amazed at how people they don't know have offered support, too.
"He was a well-loved man," Valencia said. "They (the donors) have gone above and beyond. We are just very grateful with the help."
Earlier Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state's food and grocery workers will receive two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave during the coronavirus emergency at his daily press briefing.
The statewide executive order applies to food sector workers, including grocery, fast food, delivery and farm workers of companies with more than 500 employees who are impacted by COVID-19, according to Newsom's office.
It was during the daily briefing that Newsom confirmed a number of employees at the warehousing center had been infected while answering a question about some essential food workers who may fall into a gap of inadequate sick-leave pay.
"We have example in San Joaquin Valley right now at a very large food distribution center, where we have 51 positives," Newsom said. "One individual has passed away in a facility that has over 1,700 workers."
Late Thursday, the company confirmed to the Associated Press that "3% of our approximately 1,700 associates at the Tracy Distribution Center has tested positive for COVID-19."
Safeway, which is owned by Boise, Idaho-based grocery giant Albertsons, said all employees at the Tracy warehouse would undergo thermal temperature readings and a health screening before entering the facility.
Meanwhile, Safeway spokeswoman Wendy Gutshall said the Tracy Distribution Center's produce warehouse is short on staff "for a variety of reasons." She said the company was streamlining operations "to ensure that our stores are still able to be supplied with the necessary order for our customers."
Gutshall said the distribution center will run on streamlined operations "for the time being," as the company works to "secure additional resources."
"The health and safety of all our associates is our top priority," Gutshall said in an email statement to The Mercury News, a San Jose newspaper. "Once we learn of a positive diagnosis, we thoroughly clean and disinfect all locations and touch points that the associate may have come into contact with. That is in addition to enhanced measures in place to clean and disinfect all departments, restrooms and other high-touch points of the distribution center throughout the day."
She said Safeway is closing all common areas and encouraging workers to take lunches and breaks by themselves. All employees are now required to wear masks, she said.
The facility, the size of 33 football fields according to Food Logistics magazine, serves more than 250 stores in California and Nevada, as well as 19 locations in Hawaii, and ships some 14 million cases a month.
Shortage of several grocery items, including produce, have been reported throughout Northern California, from Moraga to Sacramento. But it wasn't known if it was related to the virus breakout at the Tracy Distribution Center or to the streamlined schedule in the center's produce department.
Shortages have also been noted for the past several weeks at several other grocery chains.
