An employee of a Giant in Columbia Heights has tested positive for the coronavirus, and three other employees of the store have been quarantined as a result, according to the union representing thousands of grocery store employees in the D.C. region. The store currently remains open.

The employee who tested positive had not worked at the store since March 19, according to a statement from a Giant Food spokesperson.

“We have taken appropriate actions to keep our associates and our customers safe, moving quickly to notify health authorities and to notify associates who may have been in close contact with the associate who was diagnosed,” the statement said. “We also took the necessary precautions to thoroughly clean and disinfect affected areas of the store.”

This is the first known case of coronavirus among a union member in D.C., but others have been confirmed throughout the region, Jonathan Williams, a spokesperson for UFCW Local 400, told DCist.

“The reality is this is just the beginning,” Williams said. “Everything that we are reading in the news … indicates that this will be the first of many. And we have to take very drastic actions very soon if not sooner in order to address this.”

A staff member at a Trader Joe’s in Arlington has also tested positive for COVID-19. The company closed the location on N Highland Street “for precautionary cleaning and sanitization.” The employee was last in the store on March 29, 2020. In the interim, staff members will be paid for their scheduled shifts, the company said in a statement.

Giant Food has previously said that it is offering 14 days of paid sick leave to store employees who test positive for COVID-19, but the benefit does not extend to employees who are quarantining as a result of exposure or caring for sick family members. (The grocery giant is exempt from Congress’s recently expanded paid sick leave law because it employs more than 500 people.)

But Giant said that the employee who tested positive, as well as those from the Columbia Heights store who have been required to quarantine, will all receive sick pay while they are recovering or quarantining.

Local 400, which represents store employees at Giant, Safeway, Shoppers, and Kroger, has launched an action to designate grocery store workers as “first-responders” so that they can get priority for coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment. D.C., for example, has opened up a testing site specifically for corrections officers and first responders.

“We need to understand who’s at risk, and who we’re putting at risk by coming to work,” said Williams. That’s especially the case, he added, because several of the large grocery chains are offering two weeks of paid sick leave only for those employees who test positive for coronavirus or have an order to quarantine from a doctor or health authority.

Just a few weeks ago, Giant and Safeway workers were on the verge of a strike over wages, health care benefits, and worker pensions. Now thousands of grocery store employees are on the front lines of the pandemic, along with employees of small food markets, as one of the few kinds of essential businesses that are allowed to remain open.

Many grocery stores have responded to the pandemic by offering employees pay bumps, adjusting their sick leave policies, and trying to provide employees with personal protective equipment when possible. Stores have also added precautions for workers, including installing plexiglass to minimize contact, but many have expressed fears about contracting the virus.

“Staff are exhibiting signs of stress,” Eleanor Gease, Each Peach’s general manager, told WAMU last month. “They’re interacting with hundreds of people a day.”

And in addition to fears about their safety, the work can be grueling as customers race to stock up. “The stores are war zones,” said Jeffrey Reid, who works in the meat department at a Giant in Silver Spring. “You put the chicken out and before you even put it out, you know, people want to grab it … They want any and everything in this particular moment in time.”

This story has been updated with comment from Giant.