An AT&T employee has tested positive for coronavirus and six AT&T stores closed as a result.

The employee works for the Ma Bell carrier in San Diego, California. Recently, the employee traveled to a high-risk area where coronavirus is spreading. Whether the visited country was China, South Korea, Japan, or Italy isn't clear.

The employee has tested"presumptive positive" for coronavirus. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has to make the official evaluation to confirm the case. Once hospitals receive an initial confirmation, they must contact the CDC to confirm.


Six AT&T stores closed due to coronavirus

As a result of the presumptive positive test (though pre-CDC and thus, unofficial), the top-ranked US wireless carrier closed six San Diego stores for a day.

The six stores AT&T closed are Chula Vista, San Marcos, Vista, National City, Oceanside, and Escondido. The employee works in a Chula Vista store, but AT&T closed the other 5 stores as a precautionary measure. All 6 stores are being deep-cleaned to prevent the spread of the disease to others.

Those coming in contact with the employee have been notified and are under self-quarantine for 14 days. An individual in contact with the infected patient took her child out of school so as to avoid a potential school spread.


The AT&T coronavirus case explains why a number of tech conferences are canceled already, such as the global Mobile World Congress (MWC), scheduled for the end of February.

After a number of American and Asian mobile brands canceled press conferences, the GSMA shut it down for the first time in the conference's 33-year history. Fortnite creator and North Carolina-based company Epic Games canceled its Game Developers Conference appearance as well as its European 2020 Unreal Fest conference due to coronavirus.

Coronavirus patients in California now at 60

This new case is one of 60 or so in California. The first case in the Golden State was an individual who didn't leave the state or travel to South Korea, Japan, Italy, or Wuhan, China.


In other words, without direct contact in high-risk regions, coronavirus is spreading to areas by way of communities themselves. Area spreads are worse than contact spreads, which are normal with communicable diseases.

California's rise in cases is not the first on the West Coast. That belongs to Washington State, with 10 deaths in the state so far. The Life Care Center nursing home facility in Kirkland is the source of coronavirus in Washington state. A Life Care Center visitor from North Carolina brought the disease back to Wake County, North Carolina.

It is the southern state's first case since China reported the outbreak to the CDC in early January. Since the North Carolina diagnosis, other elderly patients at Life Care Center in Kirkland have come down with coronavirus.