An outbreak of COVID-19 at the Trident Seafoods factory in the small, remote Akutan community has resulted in positive tests for more than a third of the workers tested so far.
The Alaskan Department of Health and Social Services said on Tuesday that 135 out of 307 tests were positive on employees at the factory, North America’s largest seafood processing facility with a workforce that exceeds the community population. .
It was not immediately clear how many of the workers with a positive test are showing symptoms of the virus.
Five workers were removed, but not all because of problems related to COVID-19, state officials said. This includes one who developed respiratory problems on January 17, which led to the discovery of the virus in the plant. Four workers tested positive that day, the company said.
More tests continue. There are about 700 workers in the factory. Additional medical supplies and ventilators are being shipped to the factory, state officials said.
The outbreak is the third at a seafood processing plant in the Aleutian Islands, about a week after the billion dollar pollock fishery began in the Bering Sea.
Westward Seafoods, owner of Alyeska Seafoods Inc. in Unalaska, on Friday temporarily halted production based on a set of positive COVID-19 cases identified during worker surveillance tests at the Alyeska plant, according to a city update. .
Alyeska “enacted her plans to respond to the positive cases identified in her workforce”, which includes isolating people with a positive test, helping to track contacts, quarantining people who are close contacts of infected workers and conducting more tests.
A message left at the company’s Seattle headquarters on Tuesday was not returned.
An outbreak at another Unalaska plant, operated by UniSea, closed earlier, although officials said they hoped to reopen by this weekend. A UniSea representative did not return a request for information on Tuesday about the status of the tests there, and possible reopening schedule.
All eyes are on Trident, given the company’s reputation in the industry and the factory’s remote location, with difficult access and few medical resources. The factory is a closed campus where workers complete a 14-day quarantine before reaching the island.
This is a developing story. Check again for updates.