A Clackamas County assisted living center employee has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the woman’s employer confirmed.

The coronavirus patient works as a full-time caregiver in at The Springs at Clackamas Woods in Milwaukie, said Tracy Darchini, a company spokeswoman.

The caregiver reported to work Monday with no symptoms, had her temperature checked as part of a recently implemented screening process, and showed no sign of fever or other symptoms, Darchini said. She said the worker did not show any symptoms at any point when she was with residents.

The employee didn’t feel well before work Tuesday, so she called in sick and went to the doctor. She did not return to work. On Thursday, she received her positive test results, Darchini said. She is recovering at her home.

The virus has proven to be especially dangerous at care facilities, where it can spread quickly in close quarters and infect people who are most vulnerable to death from the disease. At least 35 deaths are connected to a single facility in Washington. A veterans home in Linn County has been linked to 15 coronavirus cases, mostly among residents older than 70. Oregon officials said Tuesday that they believe the virus may have already reached more than 30 nursing homes statewide.

Fee Stubblefield, chief executive officer of The Springs senior living facilities, said as soon as the company learned an employee had tested positive, executives went into “full lockdown protocol,” limiting residents’ movement to their own rooms.

He said the company had already implemented several preventative measures, including screening all residents and employees for symptoms of the virus.

“We decided we’ll worry now, so that we don’t have to worry later,” he said.

Stubblefield said the company limited employees to work in only one of the facility’s several buildings to reduce the risk of exposure to residents in case someone did get the virus. The facility’s 12-unit buildings house residents for independent living, assisted living or memory care programs. The employee who tested positive had been assigned to a 12-unit assisted living building.

Staffers also started logging residents’ cold, cough and fever symptoms every day, and the company did the same for employees — checking their temperature and asking them about travel before every shift. They also restricted non-essential visitors and screened all visitors who did enter the buildings.

Stubblefield said the Clackamas County employee was the first one to test positive for the virus. Several other employees were sent home during the screening process, because they had a fever or weren’t feeling well, he said. Those people were also tested, and he said those tests came back negative.

He said the company has implemented an employee benefit program extending their sick pay, to encourage workers to stay home if they thought they had symptoms of the virus.

CORONAVIRUS IN OREGON: THE LATEST NEWS

So far, he said none of the residents have shown symptoms of the coronavirus, and none are suspected to have contracted it. He said none of the residents have been tested for the virus, either.

“We have been monitoring all residents for three weeks, more recently including temperature checks twice a day,” Darchin said.

Kathy Schwab said her 82-year-old mother lives in the building where the employee who contracted coronavirus works. She said the facility has been proactive by following all the state and local guidelines to protect against the virus.

“I had to go to the store last week and buy stuff for my mom and hand it off to someone at the door,” Schwab said.

She said facility employees have kept regular contact with relatives of residents and sent out calls and emails as soon as they found out about the employee who had tested positive.

“Nobody did anything wrong — they’re following all the rules," she said. “But I think it was unavoidable. We have to go out to the store and do things. Because there’s no testing, there’s no way to find out who’s transmitting the virus.”

She said she’s kept in touch with her mom through phone calls and text. Her mother, like many other residents, is anxious about the virus. The residents are quarantined to their room for at least 14 days. She found her mother an online service to check out audiobooks.

“They feel kind of trapped," she said. “They don’t get the regular socialization they’re used to, so they’re kind of stuck in there watching the news, which makes them more anxious."

Stubblefield said employees are trying to help residents stay engaged by offering them tablet computers and encouraging them to stay in touch with family through video calls.

Schwab said despite the facility’s steps to prevent the spread of the virus, she’s worried Oregon residents are not taking it seriously.

“The asymptomatic carriers are making this worse than it needs to be,” she said. “What we’re being asked to do now is not enough. Unless they quarantine people, it’s going to keep spreading.”

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.