Weiser food processing plant shuts down after workers test positive for COVID-19
A food processing plant in Weiser has shut down after at least seven employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
The employees at Fry Foods in Weiser contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and have tested positive since Sunday, according to Doug Wold, human resources manager for the Oregon/Idaho region of Fry Foods.
Fry Foods makes onion rings and other products.
Wold said the company was notified Sunday that a quality assurance employee who attended a social gathering on Thursday or Friday had tested positive. Other employees attended the same social gathering, so the company arranged for those employees and their close contacts to be tested.
Southwest District Health cleared the plant to reopen earlier this week, as long as it could provide employees with protection such as face masks, Wold said. But management decided that it wasn’t in the “best interest” of employees or the community to reopen even with those precautions, he said.
“Epidemiologists have initiated contact investigations to identify the close contacts of the individuals with confirmed COVID-19 and notify them of their potential exposure,” said health district spokeswoman Katrina Williams in a release. “Individuals who do not receive a call from the health district have not been named as a close contact and do not have cause for elevated concern.”
Williams later confirmed to the Statesman that many of infected employees attended the same social gathering or were members of the same family.
Wold said Fry Foods wasn’t approved to test all 260 employees at the Weiser facility — only about 50 or 60 who likely came in contact with the employees who tested positive. Other employees were able to get tested on their own, Wold said.
Results are still pending for about half of the tests, he said.
“We are really trying to weigh this every day,” Wold said, citing the possibility of false negatives among the returned coronavirus tests. “What’s the best way to make sure that this doesn’t grow? We’re prepared to do that. That’s the bottom line.”
The facility’s sanitation crew began cleaning the building on Sunday, when production is usually shut down, and employees were told not to report to work Monday. Employees are currently furloughed but Wold said the company is working to make sure all employees can return to work and not lose wages overall.
“I just want people to understand that we are putting the employees and the community first,” Wold said. “We have the go-ahead to run and still produce income and food, and we’re choosing not to.”
Thousands of workers in meatpacking plants and food processing companies across the country have contracted COVID-19, including some in Idaho. More than 20 employees at one meatpacking plant in Kuna have tested positive since March. There is no evidence of food or food packaging being involved in the transmission of the coronavirus, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
This story has been updated to include more information from Southwest District Health.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
