The Oregon Employment Department has shut down its Gresham office after five employees tested positive for COVID-19.

That brings the number of known cases within the troubled agency to 12. It is also the first known coronavirus breakout in a state office.

State officials closed the Gresham office Wednesday and it remained so Friday afternoon. The agency hired professionals to conduct a “super” cleaning of the place.

Employment department spokeswoman Ariane LeChevallier said the agency will begin mandating facial coverings for all employees once it reopens. The agency will also attempt to reconfigure foot traffic in the building to minimize human contact.

The Multnomah County Health Department is conducting contact tracing this week, the process of locating people who came into contact with an infected person in hopes of limiting the virus’ spread.

The COVID-19 breakout is the latest twist in a difficult year for the employment department. It couldn’t keep up with an enormous surge of applications for unemployment benefits by newly laid off Oregonians. More than 60,000 applications have yet to be processed.

There have been more than 80 highly localized coronavirus outbreaks since it arrived in Oregon. The Oregon Health Authority tracks all workplace outbreaks that infect five or more people.

Most of the larger outbreaks have taken place at food processing plants and other factory settings where employees work in close proximity. Pacific Seafood, which operates several fish processing plants on the coast, Lamb Weston in Hermiston and Bob’s Red Mill of Clackamas all experienced major outbreaks.

The single largest outbreak, according to the health authority, took place at the Oregon State Penitentiary, where 183 people were infected.

It remains unclear when the employment department will reopen the Gresham office. The condition of the five COVID-19 patients was unknown.

This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving heath issue.