IOWA CITY, Iowa: The first confirmed coronavirus outbreak at an Iowa meatpacking plant was far more serious than previously known, with more than twice as many workers infected as the state Department of Public Health told the public, as recently released records show.
The department announced at a press conference on May 5 that 221 employees at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for COVID-19.
But days earlier, Tyson officials told Iowa workplace safety regulators during an inspection that 522 plant employees had been infected, according to documents obtained through the open records law.
A dozen of the approximately 1,300 workers at the plant were believed to have been hospitalized by then, and two died after contracting the virus, Tyson officials told the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The discrepancy adds to the growing questions facing the state health department about its handling of public information during the pandemic. Last week, the department forced its long-time spokeswoman, who said she was expelled for pressing to comply with media requests, and that the agency’s delays and hyphenated talking points were embarrassing.
The agency has also faced criticism for trying to charge thousands of dollars for open record requests and for not announcing workplace outbreaks, among other things. The department said it “has gone above and beyond to provide updated and complete information” to the public.
The early April outbreak at Columbus Junction was the first of several at meat packing plants across the state, as the virus spread through crowded workplaces.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds took a pro-industrial approach to managing those outbreaks in Iowa, the top pork-producing state. She worked with executives to continue production even when thousands of workers were infected and some died, and applauded President Donald Trump’s order to keep such plants open across the country.
On May 5, Reynolds said in his daily news conference that the public health department had been collecting surveillance test data to track outbreaks, which the state defines as at least 10 percent of sick or absent employees.
He handed the podium over to deputy director of health department Sarah Reisetter, who said the Tyson plants at Columbus Junction, Perry and Waterloo and two other workplaces had confirmed outbreaks. Reisetter said the Waterloo plant had 444 positive cases, but county officials said days later it actually had more than 1,000.
As for Columbus Junction, department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said the Case 221 figure announced by Reisetter reflected the department’s test results and what it “could verify from our data systems” at the time.
“Note that we have just established a definition of an outbreak and we wanted to share the information we had available,” he said. “Since that initial round of testing in April, the testing reporting process has improved significantly.”
The department never updated the number of confirmed infections at Columbus Junction. Unlike outbreaks in long-term care facilities, the department does not post workplace outbreaks on the state’s coronavirus website.
At the May 5 briefing, Reisetter said the 221 cases reflected 26 percent of those examined, for a total of 850 tests.
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the number of infections announced by the state seemed to reflect only the first round of testing at the plant and that the additional tests had uncovered hundreds of more cases.
“Coordinating testing across the facility and obtaining results is a complex process that takes time,” he said.
But it is unclear why the department would not have the full results of the tests Tyson described to Iowa OSHA. The department, along with county health officials, had conducted massive worker tests weeks before.
Tyson officials said they learned of the first case at Columbus Junction on April 1 and left the plant idle four days later after 29 workers tested positive, according to an Iowa OSHA inspection report.
The Governor sent 1,100 test kits to the county for testing during the two-week shutdown. The plant reopened April 20 with new security measures, and Mickelson said the company is not aware of any current infections there.
Iowa OSHA opened an investigation after viewing media reports that two workers had died from the virus and inspected the plant on April 30, walking and meeting with several Tyson officials.
“There were 522 positive cases of COVID-19 to the best of the company’s knowledge,” says the inspection report.
The Tyson plant manager told inspectors that communication between the company and public health officials “was not efficient” and that information on the positive cases was not available for days after the tests, according to the report.
Iowa OSHA did not cite Tyson for any workplace safety violation, saying the company “was trying to follow CDC’s best guidance at the given time” and the recommendations were rapidly changing.
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