Fox Business Employee Tests Positive for Coronavirus

An employee of Fox Business Network has tested positive for coronavirus, top executives at Fox News Media told staffers in a memo Friday evening.

The staffer alerted the network today of the test results and employees have been notified while the Fox Corporation-owned outlet works to disinfect work areas.

Fox Business said a decision unveiled earlier Friday to temporarily suspend some shows was made in advance of the news of the employee testing positive.

“As soon as we learned of the test result, we mandated that this employee’s direct co-workers/team self-quarantine for 14 days since last contact at the direction of our medical professionals. We are also doing a deep cleaning of all areas affected and will be continuing all of our aggressive sanitizing and disinfecting efforts throughout the entire building,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News President Jay Wallace said in the memo. “We are fully supporting the employee and wishing them a speedy recovery. As we have said from day one of this crisis, the health and safety of our employees and their families is our number one concern. We have led a daily internal executive task force on the Coronavirus since late February with several doctors and have been preparing for this outcome — please be advised that everything necessary has already been activated to manage this outcome.”

Many big TV news operations have had to contend with coronavirus breaking out among employees. CBS News had to keep employees out of its New York facilities for a few days and send its “CBS This Morning” to alternate sites for broadcast. NBC News is dealing with remote locations for several members of the anchor team of its flagship “Today.” ABC News has also had a staffer who works in its Los Angeles bureau test positive.

The employee has not worked in the Fox Business offices since Friday, March 13, the executives said.