courtesy of Radio Iowa-
Governor Kim Reynolds says the full extent of the COVID-19 outbreak among employees at the Tyson meat packing plant in Columbus Junction isn’t yet known, but she’s releasing the latest tally.
“We have tested a total of 186 positive at the plant,” she said over the noon hour today.
Test results processed between Sunday and Monday alone indicated 86 workers have the virus. Reynolds said another 100 positive test results are from last week in Louisa and surrounding counties.
“We’ll be able to tell the numbers that tested positive that’s tied to the plant and they’re working on doing that through the contact tracing,” Reynolds said, “so we’ll have those numbers going forward.”
The plant processes pork and was closed April 6th after the first batches of test results shows more than two dozen employees had COVID-19.
“Public Health has been working with management at the plant to test their staff,” Reynolds said.
The governor yesterday indicated state officials have secured extra testing supplies for the plant, which employs about 14oo people.