EAGLE GROVE, Iowa — More packing plant employees in Iowa are testing positive for COVID-19, according to local health officials in those communities, and these ones are not showing symptoms of the disease.
Local 5 has confirmed the latest cluster of cases is at the Prestage Foods of Iowa packing plant in Wright County. According to the board of supervisors there, 16 employees have tested positive for coronavirus. They commute from Black Hawk County, where another outbreak at a packing plant has been located.
Last week, Prestage contacted local public health officials, communicating that they had 62 employees commuting from Black Hawk County to their facility in Wright County. Prestage and local officials agreed that a proactive measure should be taken immediately "due to the increased positives in the Black Hawk County region."
On Friday, local public health officials and leaders asked the Iowa Department of Public Health to allow all employees to be tested that commuted from that region. The request was granted and testing began late Friday and Saturday. Over the weekend, the results came back that 16 of the 62 employees tested positive for coronavirus. All 16 employees that came back positive were asymptomatic.
Due to the outcome of these tests and that all positives were asymptomatic Wright County public officials and Prestage felt it was necessary to test all employees at the facility as soon as possible. 950 tests from the state were granted to the facility, and testing began on Monday morning.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said at a press conference on Monday that she has been working closely with the packing plants to ensure the nation's food supply chain does not get disrupted, even as many employees at the plants continue to get sick with the virus.
Reynolds said these workers are essential and the packing plants can't just be shut down for an indefinite amount of time.