A Metro employee has died after being diagnosed with COVID-19, marking the first coronavirus-related death at the agency. The employee worked in the Rail Operations Control Center, which oversees operations of the entire rail system.

In a statement posted on its website Friday, the agency said, “Overnight, we learned that we lost a friend and colleague. This is the first known Covid-related death in the Metro family, an employee who worked as a manager in the Rail Operations Control Center prior to becoming ill several weeks ago.”

The statement continued, “Consistent with our values and professional standards, we will not publicly release or confirm the victim’s name, and we would ask that members of the media be appropriately sensitive, as there is a grieving family behind this tragic loss.”

The agency noted that grief counseling services would be available to employees.

As part of safety precautions to protect workers, Metro previously split ROCC employees into two teams working in separate locations, in case one group needed to quarantine. A spokesperson for WMATA did not immediately respond to DCist’s request for comment on whether that policy is still in place.

The agency also previously enabled station managers to stay in their kiosks and restricted access to those kiosks, and asked train operators to stay in their operating cabs except for emergencies, among other measures.

285 Metro employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 245 of them have returned to work, according to the agency’s website. Two of those employees were hospitalized.

Many Metro employees have been on the frontlines during the pandemic, continuing to work during the crisis, which has had major impacts on the agency resulting in drastic service cuts and lost revenue.

Metro has so far avoided furloughs or layoffs, but it has been losing about $2 million a day in revenue from fares, and lost roughly $61 million between March and May. General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said in a statement last month that if the agency did not receive more federal aid, it would “be left with some very difficult choices to deal” with a looming financial crisis.