Foster Farms poultry plant in Fresno reopens after weekend shutdown over COVID-19

Foster Farms reopened its facility on Cherry Street in Fresno on Monday morning following deep cleaning over the weekend to address a coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.

Over the past two weeks, 193 workers at the 1,400-person facility in southwest Fresno tested positive for COVID-19, according to Ira Brill, vice president of communications for Foster Farms. He said they were all asymptomatic.

The most recent round of testing showed a decrease in COVID-19 positivity rates, Brill told The Bee on Monday.

“It’s trending in the right direction,” he said. “We’ve pulled out, we think, the vast majority of people that were asymptomatic. But you can’t be satisfied with that.”

The company was previously testing all plant employees once a week. Starting this week, they are now testing everyone twice a week. That’s also why, Brill said, so many people tested positive — they were tested at work, and the company made those numbers public.

While it’s encouraged, California companies are not required to publicize COVID-19 outbreaks under current law.

“Our prevalence levels have been less than 1%, which means our mitigations are working. But what’s happening is California has had an uncontrollable surge. Where people get confused is, why are people getting sick in the plant? They’re not. You’re probably safer in one of these plants than in the supermarket,” Brill said.

Workers go through temperature checks as they enter the plant, Brill said. They have staggered breaks, continuous cleaning, and plexiglass dividers “to maximize or compensate for social distance where the workspace doesn’t entirely permit it,” Brill said.

He suspects Thanksgiving gatherings contributed to the high rates of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the Fresno County Department of Public Health will tour the Cherry Street plant with Foster Farms management to go through the mitigations they have in place, Brill added.

“Could there be a lapse? Could there be other sources? Then we develop a joint strategy to prevent this,” he said.

This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Foster Farms poultry plant in Fresno reopens after weekend shutdown over COVID-19."