Testing at Tyson plant near Tri-Cities finds nearly 1 in 8 with coronavirus. 2 have died

Some 144 workers at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant near the Tri-Cities have tested positive for COVID-19 in testing done at the plant near the Tri-Cities in recent days, as a second worker there may have died.

With 1,236 test results released by Saturday, the percentage of positive results was just under 12 percent.

That means nearly one in eight workers at the plant were infected with the new coronavirus as testing starting April 24.

The Benton Franklin Health District on Saturday reported two deaths in county residents associated with food processing plants, with the Tyson plant the only one nearby with a known outbreak.

No further information was available on the weekend.

A 60-year-old Pasco butcher who worked at the plant died April 20.

Tyson closed the plant when testing began and a decision on when it will reopen has not been announced.

Results for just 22 workers are pending after the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health required all people working at the beef processing plant at Wallula to be tested.

Tyson workers were falling ill through April, with 104 COVID-19 cases linked to the outbreak in residents of four counties — Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Umatilla, Ore. — just before testing of workers at the plant began.

More cases were reported before results started to come back from testing at the plant.

Walla Walla County officials released the results of 636 tests on Saturday, with just 28 positive cases among those results. That compared to 116 positive cases in the first 600 test results released Thursday and Friday.

Many Tyson workers in Tri-Cities

Walla Walla County officials on Saturday did not release information on where workers with positive tests lived, other than 15 workers who lived in Walla Walla County.

However, the majority of workers at the Tyson beef slaughter and packing plant at Wallula south of Pasco live in the Tri-Cities area.

The Benton Franklin Health District has said that 147 residents of the two counties have had COVID-19 linked to the outbreak at the Wallula beef plant, with most of those cases reported before testing results at the plant were received.

The health district said Saturday that it was continuing to verify which of the positive cases from the testing are Tri-Citians.

As workers were tested at the plant they 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 and the Centers for Disease Control.

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.

The plant had taken many of those steps before closing for testing.

Contacts of tested workers

At least 20 COVID-19 deaths linked to meat and poultry processing facilities in 19 states have been reported.

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.

They are looking for volunteers who could help with that contact tracing, which could include phone calls and email.

They prefer volunteers 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. The Karen languages are spoken by some immigrants from Myanmar, formerly Burma.

Applications are available online at www.waserv.org. More information about applying is at bit.ly/2SuoZO2.

This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 5:25 AM.