A Maryland Motor Vehicle Employee from the Largo branch office in Prince George’s County has died from COVID-19 and four others who work there have tested positive, department officials say.

The employee, who worked as a customer service agent for almost 10 years, died on Friday after being out sick for two weeks.  The department disinfected and cleaned the branch office on Saturday, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. It conducted another deep cleaning on Monday.

The most recent employee who tested positive did so on Saturday, but union representatives told DCist/WAMU that MVA management did not notify the employees of the positive cases and failed to protect them.

Walter Powell, an employee at the branch, is quarantining out of fear of exposure to the virus. He says he received no notice of an employee testing positive for the virus until Oct. 4 when he was notified by another employee.

“We’ve received nothing from the Motor Vehicle Administration as to what was going on with people being ill,” Powell told DCist.

But Whitney Nichels, media relations for the MVA, wrote in an email that contact tracing is underway, and employees have been instructed to self-quarantine.

“We have been in contact with that team member’s family, and grief counselors are being arranged for staff at the Largo branch office as we get through this tragedy together,” Nichels wrote. “We will continue to support our employees with any resources we have available while they remain in quarantine.”

Meanwhile, MVA’s Largo branch employees like Powell say the death of the colleague has many afraid to return to the workplace. “We have PPEs, there’s a barrier that protects us from the customer, but as far as each co-worker there’s nothing dividing each co-worker,” Powell says.

Powell and other union members with the AFSCME Council 3 say this would not have happened if the department took proper precautions against COVID-19. Union representatives say that the department has not kept employees socially distant nor has it upgraded the ventilation system in the office building.

The Largo branch office is still open to the public by appointment. Nichels says customers entering branch offices are now required to wear face coverings and participate in a health screening and temperature scan.

Powell says it isn’t enough. “They need to close the branch, they need to require that every employee gets tested and comes back with a negative test before they reopen,” Powell says. “I don’t know how else we would get [COVID] out of the building.”

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, allows employees to take 80 hours of leave if they contract the virus or feel like they have been exposed. But union representatives say many employees need more time, especially if they are exposed to the virus more than once or fall sick which could keep them out of the work for more than 10 days.