Semiconductor equipment manufacturer Lam Research is closing its Tualatin campus “to perform a thorough disinfection” because two employees have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Lam said 2,000 people typically work at the site but 1,600 of them have been working from home since March 11. The company, which is based in Silicon Valley, said the two employees with COVID-19 symptoms work in separate buildings on the site.

Lam said it has not confirmed the workers actually contracted the virus but will close “out of an abundance of caution.”

“Although we are an essential industry to the nation’s critical data and computing infrastructure, nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our employees and we are responding to this situation aggressively,” Lam said in a written statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Lam Research and many other Oregon companies have continued operating during the outbreak. The “stay-home” order Gov. Kate Brown issued Monday specifically exempted construction and manufacture from closure and allowed many other industries continue to operate, provided employees maintain a six-foot distance among workers or take other steps to prevent infection from spreading among them.

Hundreds have workers have complained to state authorities this week (Oregon’s Occupational Safety & Health division is taking complaints here) that their employers are not following the safety guidelines.

On Thursday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that a Lam supervisor sent a memo to some employees earlier this week ordering them not to report to work for a day while supervisors “spend the day working on social distancing controls.”

“We have too many people in the cleanroom and not enough controls for keeping physical distance between employees,” the memo read.

Lam said Thursday that it has already implemented steps to keep workers separated and to provide them additional protection in limited situations when they must work more closely together.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

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