Employee of E-commerce Giant Dangdang Diagnosed with COVID-19

An employee of Dangdang, a Chinese Internet e-commerce platform, was diagnosed with COVID-19, and all her close contacts in the company have been quarantined at home.

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Reporter from a Chinese outlet Caixin obtained a recording of a Dangdang internal conference call. On the evening of February 19, deputy president of Dangdang stated clearly that an employee in the marketing department had been diagnosed with the disease.

According to the recording, the employee lives with his mother, who was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus on February 15. The employee was quarantined and is currently diagnosed with mild symptoms. The employee’s husband and child are currently testing negative according to nucleic acid tests. Nucleic acid test is an indispensable method for the diagnosis of COVID-19.

The employee had been back to the company for three and a half days since February 10, and has had contact with other employees, although she recalled that she was wearing a mask at work the whole time, and stayed at her own spot during meals.

Ironically, Peggy Yu, Chairman and CEO of Dangdang released an internal letter on February 9, one day before resuming work, that read, “COVID-19 is not terrible, and most patients only have mild symptoms”. She also called on employees to return to work early to strengthen their immune systems that are supposedly weakening from remote work. Right after the news of infection broke out, the company prolonged the corporate quarantine period until February 28.