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Pacific Seafood’ processing plant in Warrenton, Oregon, USA. But it’s not the first time It faces a large outbreak of COVID-19 among its workers, just over 4 months after dealing with more than 130 workers who tested positive for coronavirus at its five plants in the region.
According to a September 24 press from the Clatsop County Department of Public Health, night shift tests of 159 plant members conducted earlier this week through a personal laboratory revealed 77 positive effects for COVID-19.
“The Oregon Health Authority is taking the lead in organizing those affected and finding the circle of family members and other workers’ contacts,” he said. “The company is also conducting tests on the plant’s day shift on Thursday and Friday. “
According to Pacific Seafood general counsel Tony Dal Ponte, none of those who tested positive had any symptoms.
“As a precaution and for the peace of mind of our team members, we have chosen to increase checks on all plant staff and will perform approximately 140 additional checks on Thursday and Friday,” he wrote in an immediate statement. Beyond the delight of widespread controls, we anticipated that this next phase of control would possibly also come with a lot of positive asymptomatic control effects. The CDC estimates that 40% of infections are asymptomatic and 50% of transmissions occur before symptoms appear, so these effects are not indicative of workplace spread.
Pacific temporarily suspended operations on its midday shift at Warrenton and is running a giant remediation regime while the plant is offline, Dal Ponte told SeafoodSource.
“As a food production facility, we already have some of the highest physical safety criteria,” he said. “We’ll disinfect again as long as we’re not there, but back, there’s no evidence of spread in the workplace. Community activities were the Maximum of a concern We will quarantine others who test positive and be out until they are allowed to return to work, which is usually nine to 10 days if they are asymptomatic, and a little more if they appear. Symptoms. Once we have finished all the checks and reviewed the results, we will initiate a slow technique to reopen. “
Dal Ponte said Pacific expected more effects from the new tests.
“When you review a lot of people, there’s a smart chance of getting more positive effects, so we expect to see more positive effects when checks come out. But that doesn’t mean a spread in the place of the paintings, and so far we haven’t. noticed any evidence of that, ” said Ponte. ” The explanation for why Pacific stands out is that we are one of the few entities that offers large-scale checking accounts. We consider checking accounts to be a smart way to work with the Oregon Health Authority to help perceive what’s happening in network paintings and how we can combine all the paints to engage you. “
Dal Ponte, the existing epidemic would come from a social gathering outside of business hours on Labor Day.
“We do everything we can in our facilities. The biggest challenge is what happens outdoors in our facilities,” Ponte said. “We are doing everything we can to inspire others to adhere to the same protocols we have in the paints when we go We supply cleaning devices to team members who remain in the off-site accommodation, coordinate with the hosting providers to make sure they do the normal cleaning of the room, inspire everyone to wear cloth hats and ask them to follow all other advice. At the end of the day, once they leave their turn, those team members are guilty of their own actions. We can inspire, but we can’t force. “
Housing shortages in many communities where Pacific operates in Oregon have exacerbated living conditions in many communities where Pacific operates in Oregon that make it difficult to meet social estating guidelines, Ponte said.
“What we had to do in other people’s areas to increase social distance in our homes. We moved the furniture so there were fewer people in the rooms, things like that. But with other people who tested positive, we had to isolate them in rooms, so there are even fewer homes available, and that remains a challenge not only for our seasonal workforce, but also for the era of our coastal communities,” he said.
Dal Ponte expressed fear about the number of independent advertising fishing vessels with which the Pacific is a spouse and the economic difficulties they face, such as local communities off the coast of Oregon, when a plant like Warrenton’s closes.
“When we don’t work, they don’t fish and don’t buy everything they want to keep their boats in the water. So it’s everyone’s credit for getting up and working to keep those boats in the water,” he said.
However, Dal Ponte downplayed considerations that COVID-19 can be transmitted through workers carrying the virus in sea product packaging, as reported in China.
“Surely there is no danger of transmission through food packaging,” Ponte said. “I accept it as true with the US government. But it’s not the first time And fitness officials report unudied chinese government reports, and the FDA has made it clear that there is no threat of transmission through food products. I suspect that Chinese messages have more to do with current industry disputes than anything else. “
Dal Ponte said the coronavirus is not the only risk to his operations: The giant wildfires that burned in the western United States also approached several of his facilities.
“None of our facilities were in immediate danger or danger,” he said. “Some were on evacuation alert, but this did not happen with our processing or distribution operations. “
Fires in Oregon are now more common and evacuation alerts have been eliminated, Ponte said.
Photo courtesy of Pacific Seafood
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