Chris Jackson was halfway through his overnight shift sorting the mail for delivery when he and several colleagues were summoned into a windowless conference room.
The senior manager of the mail facility was there along with a representative from the union and other postal officials.
They confirmed the rumors that had been swirling all night. One of their colleagues in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, mail facility had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
They gave the staff the option of going home, and about half did. But the facility wasn’t going to shut down. Instead, they set up cones around the area where the sick worker had been, and the overnight crew continued until dawn preparing the mail to be sent to people’s homes.
“They said we need to have the delivery trucks out there,” Jackson said. “They said delivery trucks really instill confidence that it’s business as usual, that the mail is still getting to you.”