A UAW official said late Tuesday that the union is mourning the death of two members who tested positive for the novel coronavirus and have died.

"I can confirm that two UAW members who had tested positive, one at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant and one in Kokomo, at the Kokomo Transmission Plant (in Indiana), have passed. Both worked for Fiat Chrysler," said Brian Rothenberg, UAW spokesman.

"At this time, that's all the information I have," he said.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said, "Out of respect for the privacy of the families and those impacted by this situation, we are declining to comment."

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Both the company and the union have been monitoring plants nationally as union officials track assembly workers quarantined and ill. Most plants in Michigan have been shuttered temporarily, but that action followed reports of near fights in factories as tension grew with the spread of the virus.

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW-FCA plant workers die of coronavirus in days following protests