Crush the Curve to test all Weiser food plant workers as COVID-19 positives mount
An Idaho nonprofit group is providing free coronavirus testing to all employees at a Weiser food processing plant, after several workers tested positive this week.
Crush the Curve, an effort co-founded by local businessman and doctor Tommy Ahlquist, will offer free testing to all employees — and their close contacts — at Fry Foods in Weiser on Friday. The company, which also operates a food processing facility in Ontario, Oregon, shut the Weiser plant down Sunday after a worker tested positive.
The outbreak was linked to a social gathering involving several members of one family who also worked at the plant, although Fry Foods spokesman Doug Wold said Thursday he was no longer sure all of the positive COVID-19 cases among employees could be linked to that gathering
More than a dozen workers from the plant have since tested positive, he said. Southwest District Health reported a total of 13 positive cases in Washington County through Thursday.
Wold previously told the Statesman the plant was unable to secure testing for all of its 260 employees from local health care providers as a preemptive measure.
That’s when Ahlquist and Crush the Curve stepped in.
“My heart aches for companies like this,” Ahlquist told the Statesman on Thursday. “Here’s a company doing the best they can. … The business owner, once again, is left standing there holding the bag.”
Crush the Curve will also be testing employees at the Fry Foods location in Ontario as a preemptive measure, although the Fry Foods will pay for those tests. Wold said Fry Foods already had limited contact between its three locations in Idaho and Oregon.
Crush the Curve is hoping to help other Idaho companies struggling to protect employees while continuing their daily business. Ahlquist said the Crush the Curve team has the capacity to process 4,000 COVID-19 tests per day, or 28,000 tests per week. But he insisted more federal money should be allocated to help the state and Idaho businesses to increase testing capacity and cover the costs for tests insurance providers don’t always pay for.
“A little nonprofit can’t be the solution for funding this,” Ahlquist said.
This story has been corrected to reflect that only the Weiser plant testing is free.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 7:09 PM.
