By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Some 124 workers at Pacific Seafood’s five processing plants in Newport have tested positive for COVID-19, the company announced Sunday, making it by far the largest single public workplace outbreak in Oregon since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In announcing the results of tests, the company said its five Newport facilities would remain closed until “we are able to confirm the safety of our team members, fleet and community.”
The company had its 376 employees, contractors and international seasonal workers tested Friday after nine employees tested positive earlier in the week. It closed the plant Friday and Saturday for extensive cleaning and hoped to reopen Sunday.
Pacific Seafood announced the results of all its company-paid tests Sunday afternoon, about an hour after Lincoln County Public Health said there were 61 additional cases as of midnight Saturday. The county told YachatsNews it expected more positive cases from results of the Pacific Seafood testing – and they came within the hour.
With the full numbers Sunday afternoon from Pacific Seafood, now there are 160 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County.
Before Sunday’s announcements, the county had reported 33 confirmed COVID-19 cases, more than tripling the number since the previous week.
County health officials were scrambling Sunday to react, holding conference calls with the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon OSHA, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which oversees food processing plants.
Seafood processors on the Oregon coast are in full swing this time of year, drawing hundreds of temporary workers from around the Northwest, the Willamette Valley and foreign countries. Like many agricultural processors in the Northwest and across the country they are very susceptible to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Pacific Seafood and Bornstein Seafood plants in Clatsop County were shut down in May because of outbreaks there. The bulk of that county’s 46 COVID-19 cases can be traced to the plants, the county’s health director said last week, as he called on state agencies to more closely inspect plants and conduct regular testing.
Lincoln County Public Health officials weeks ago had expressed concern about the influx of seafood processing workers to Newport and the chance they could be carrying the coronavirus into the county.
The first positive COVID-19 tests at Pacific Seafood were last Tuesday. In its news release Sunday, Pacific Seafood said 53 employees and 71 workers hired through local staffing agencies had tested positive for COVID-19. It said 95 percent had not reported any symptoms and none have been hospitalized.
All of its international, seasonal workers tested negative, the company said, and none of those had started work at any of the Newport plants.
A Pacific Seafood spokeswoman said when its own hiring and temporary staffing is unable to meet all its labor needs, it brings in a group of international workers to a few, select plants through the country’s H2B visa program, which is allowed when an area cannot meet peak labor needs.
“Our H2B visa workers have not started working at any of our Newport facilities this season and all have tested negative for COVID-19 prior to being transported to the Newport area last week,” the company said in an email.
Pacific Seafood said Friday it was planning to institute a wide range of workplace protocols to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus among workers and its facilities. On Sunday it said it would now require advance coronavirus testing of all workers and contractors.
The big challenge for the county is to now “trace” contacts all of the newly-infected people – other workers, roommates, and any community contacts – to help contain the virus’ spread. Public Health Director Rebecca Austen said Friday that the county would be asking the state for additional help to do that, especially foreign language speakers.
“We will identify the positive cases, trace who they have had close contact with, isolate those individuals and ensure any outbreak is quickly contained,” said Austen.
The 124 cases at Pacific Seafood dwarfs Oregon’s last major outbreak at a food processor – 51 cases confirmed at Townsend Farms, a berry processor with plants in Fairview and Cornelius. There was an earlier outbreak involving 34 cases at a food plant in Albany. The state’s largest outbreak is 167 cases at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
Even without the complete number from Pacific Seafood, the Oregon Health Authority said the new cases as of midnight Saturday – 146 — marked the highest daily count since the onset of the pandemic in Oregon.
“We know this number sounds worrisome, but it is tied to several factors, including more widespread testing, increased contact tracing and active monitoring of close contacts of cases,” the agency said in a news release.
Although the number is high today, the agency said, the overall rate of infection in Oregon remains among the lowest in the United States – about 2 percent.
“Today’s case count serves as a reminder that Oregonians need to continue to maintain physical distancing, wear face coverings where physical distancing cannot be maintained and follow good hand hygiene.”
The fallout from the spike in cases started Sunday evening in Newport.
The Lincoln County School District said as a precaution, it was suspending its summer meal program in which parents can pick up breakfast and lunches at schools in Waldport, Newport, Toledo and Lincoln City.
Sorella, a fine-dining Italian restaurant in the Nye Beach area of Newport, announced Sunday it was closing until Wednesday because of the outbreak “and the safety of our community.”
Well I was an employee and they refused to test me. Ruth, the Human Resources assistant said I quit a week ago, so the test wasn’t available to me
As Pacific Seafood was categorized as an essential business and would continue operations regardless of any shutdown recommendations I would be interested to know what, if any, proactive steps were taken to minimize risk and exposure? Additional cleaning/sanitizing? Provided PPE? Any attempts to reorganize workflow or workspace to increase space between workers? Employee education?
I’m a local and watched a worker struggle last week to keep his bandana on while he walked into the plant door to the upstairs crew courters. These workers needed proper protection. We as a community during quarantine HAD one of the lowest count of Covid-19 until we jumped into reopening. Now our area is infested with this deadly virus. In a retirement community filled with elderly and vulnerable lives.