1 in 5 workers at Tyson plant near Tri-Cities may have coronavirus, early results show

A total of 116 Tyson Fresh Meats workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in company-wide testing, with results still out on about half of the plant’s workers.

About 20% of workers whose test results have been released so far have COVID-19.

On Thursday afternoon 400 test results were released, with 56 positive results. On Friday afternoon 200 test results were released, with 60 tests positive.

Walla Walla County Department of Community Health says results are pending for 658 more tests.

Tyson Foods started closing the plant April 24 for testing of all workers, as required by Walla Walla County officials because of an outbreak linked to the plant.

All of the nearly 1,400 workers, most of whom live in the Tri-Cities, were sent home to self isolate until they received results of their tests.

Employees who tested negative are eligible to return to work when the plant reopens. Those testing positive must be symptom free for seven days before going back to work.

Tyson Foods is still considering when to reopen the plant after it closed for testing. Part of the decision depends on having enough healthy employees to operate safely.

The plant processes enough beef in a day to feed 4 million people, according to Tyson Foods.

When it reopens, it will need to adhere to the COVID-19 safety measures outlined by the Walla Walla County health department before the closure.

Measures include screening for COVID-19 symptoms, temperature checks, social distancing, placement of plexiglass dividers between work stations and communication about the disease that all workers can understand, including those who speak little English.

Previous Tyson cases

The new results from the employee testing are in addition to about 140 people with COVID-19 from the outbreak at the Wallula beef plant, most of them diagnosed before the plant-wide testing began. All but 10 live in Benton and Franklin counties.

One worker, a 60-year-old Pasco man, died April 20.

He is one of 20 people linked to meat and poultry processing facilities in 19 states to die because of COVID-19.

Among about 130,000 workers at those plants, there have been 4,913 positive cases reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Tyson is paying for the testing at the plant near the Tri-Cities, and also said it would pay workers for the time they were off work waiting for test results.

The Benton Franklin Health District and Walla Walla County health officials will be working to determine who has come in close contact with workers who tested positive.

The Benton Franklin Health District is looking for volunteers who could help with that contact tracing, which could include phone calls and email.

They prefer people who have worked in healthcare or who have degree in a related field of science.

It also needs volunteers to help its experts with language translation, particularly for people who speak Burmese, Karen, Arabic and Spanish.

Applications are available online at www.waserv.org. More information about applying is here.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 4:43 PM.