CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago-area postal worker who is battling COVID-19 spoke out Monday out about the mail service delays and issues we’ve spent months uncovering, across the city and surrounding suburbs.

That worker told CBS 2’s Tara Molina that staffers do not feel safe, with more and more of them coming down with the virus – and that’s what’s behind many of those delays.

A total of 17,575 of their 644,000 employees nationwide have tested positive. Molina talked to one of them.

“It was scary,” the worker said. “After your 14 days, you’re supposed to return back that next day after that.”

The Chicago-area USPS worker is at home right now battling COVID. They believe they got the virus at work.

Molina: “You believe that a lot of these delays and mail issues are related to positive COVID cases in post offices?”

Postal Worker: “Yes.”

They reached out because they say there’s more contributing to the delays than USPS is sharing.

“Sometimes we don’t have enough manpower,” the worker said.

And they don’t feel safe at work because, internally, they claim the Postal Service is not sharing enough.

“It actually has been zero communication,” they said.

They claim workers aren’t alerted when a coworker tests positive – there’s no contact tracing, and there’s little direction for those who have to pick up or split a new route when a worker is out with the virus. Read More At CBS Chicago