Foster Farms reports COVID-19 rate under 1% for turkey plant workers in Turlock
Foster Farms said fewer than 1% of its turkey workers in Turlock tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.
Wednesday’s announcement came a few weeks after a serious outbreak among the company’s chicken plant employees in Livingston.
Foster Farms said it conducted 2,134 tests among the 1,119 workers at the two plants in Turlock that handle all of its turkey. Most were tested twice. Testing was done from Sept. 3 to 11 at the plants, on adjoining blocks just south of downtown.
The company did not say exactly how many tests were positive, but it is 21 or fewer based on the 1% figure.
Foster Farms did say that 75 workers in Turlock had tested positive earlier in the pandemic. No deaths have been reported.
‘A continuing challenge’ from virus
The numbers were in an emailed statement from Ira Brill, vice president of communications at the Livingston-based business.
It noted that separate testing this month at the Turlock distribution center, which employs 30 people, yielded one positive test, or 3%. of the staff.
The statement reiterated the COVID-19 measures Foster Farms has taken at its poultry plants in California and elsewhere. Arriving employees are checked for symptoms daily. They wear face coverings and are separated by partitions at work stations and break areas. All this is on top of long-standing safeguards against food-borne diseases in the finished products.
“COVID-19 represents a continuing challenge to all who live and work in California,” Brill said. “This challenge is especially felt by companies like Foster Farms that share the special responsibility of keeping food on our supermarket shelves, while ensuring the health and welfare of employees.”
Merced and Fresno plants
The outbreak at the Livingston chicken plant has resulted in at least eight deaths and 358 positive tests, Merced County health officials said. It closed for about a week for a deep cleaning, then reopened Sept. 7.
Foster Farms also has two chicken plants in Fresno that have had two deaths and 158 positive tests since the start of the pandemic. A new round of testing Sept. 1 to 10 resulted in the same incidence of less than 1%, the statement said. A total of 4,180 tests were done on 2,612 workers.
“Foster Farms will be conducting follow-up surveillance testing at its major processing facilities to further identify and reduce the risk of COVID-19 to workers,” Brill said.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 1:57 PM.
