Coronavirus outbreak at Livingston Foster Farms plant reaches 200 cases, 2 deaths, mayor says
The Foster Farms facility in Livingston has had an outbreak of more than 200 infections in recent weeks, including at least two deaths, according to Mayor Gurpal Samra.
Officials with Foster Farms would not confirm the number of cases or deaths at the Livingston facility in Merced County.
Ira Brill, the company’s vice president of communications, he said in a statement, “over the last month, there has been a significant increase in the number of employees testing positive.”
He said Foster Farms has been working with the California Department of Agriculture, as well as federal and other officials.
“I can tell you that there have been no discussions with officials at the federal, state or local level with regard to temporarily closing the Livingston plant,” Brill said in an email.
The plant has been operating under new safety guidelines for several months to protect workers, according to company officials.
Workers’ concerns
Samra said employees are not asking the plant to close. Still, the workers don’t believe the company has done enough to protect them from COVID-19.
“They just want to be safe and not bring it home to their families,” he said. “A lot of the employees over there feel like everybody is looking out for the bottom line of the company and not the people.”
Employees said the company has begun some new safety precautions in recent weeks but Samra said workers remain worried. “They’re starting to do some things but then again they’re not doing very much,” he said.
Meat-packing facilities can be a breeding ground for the spread of the virus. The Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, became the single largest COVID-19 hotspot in the country in March with nearly 900 workers testing positive.
Advocates say the cramped quarters and demand for the employees to process meat as fast as possible in such plants makes plant workers more vulnerable to the spread of the virus.
Merced County has declined to confirm the numbers at Foster Farms, citing the privacy of patients, according to spokesperson Mike North. He confirmed the plant is one of several businesses in the county with an active outbreak.
‘Tip of the iceberg,’ advocate says
The county’s Department of Public Health last month reported that on June 29, 13 people at the Livingston plant had tested positive. Prior to that, in May workers at a Foster Farms turkey ranch had tested positive.
Brill said the meat-processing plant is an essential part of the region’s food infrastructure. About 3,750 people work at the Livingston plant.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster Farms has followed (Centers for Disease Control) and (state Division of Occupational Safety and Health) guidance in consultation with state and local health authorities,” Brill said in his statement.
Brill said the plant saw an increase in the number of cases about the same time as infections were being recorded after the Fourth of July in the rest of Merced County and the central San Joaquin Valley.
“We believe the protective measures in place company-wide diminished the risk of COVID-19 to our workforce at the onset of the pandemic, and we will continue to review opportunities for reducing the risk of COVID-19 at all facilities,” the statement said.
The plant has conducted a testing program aimed at non-symptomatic workers, according to Brill’s statement.
Foster Farms’ most recent internal tracking data indicates a decline in new symptomatic cases, according to Brill. The company provided no information on the cases that could be independently verified.
Employees who test positive are put in quarantine, and others who may be in danger are notified, according to the statement.
Samra pushed backed at that claim, saying many employees find out about co-workers being infected through other employees and not through company officials.
Concerns over safety at the plant going back to at least April have been made public through Naindeep Singh, executive director of the nonprofit Jakara Movement, a Sikh community and youth organization.
The latest number of cases came as no surprise, according to Singh.
“We’re deeply concerned but definitely aren’t shocked by the large number of infections,” he said. “We’re hearing that this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Coronavirus outbreak at Livingston Foster Farms plant reaches 200 cases, 2 deaths, mayor says."
