440 coronavirus cases confirmed at Texas County meat processing plant

GUYMON, OK — Seaboard Foods confirmed 440 employees tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday.

"Of the more than 1,600 processing plant employees without symptoms tested, 350 tested positive for COVID-19. As of May 20, 440 employees have active cases of COVID-19 and this includes the 350 confirmed cases from this past week’s mass testing. 201 plant employees have recovered from COVID-19 and have returned to work. All employees who test positive are asked to self-isolate following CDC guidelines and cannot report to work until they recover," Seaboard Foods said in a news release.

David Eaheart, senior director of communications for Seaboard Foods told FOX 25 that as they got results over the weekend, any workers that tested positive were told to stay home.

He said more than 2,700 employees work at the plant and a total of 2,200 have been tested since the community started testing in March.

Eaheart said its first positive case of COVID-19 was reported on April 13. The employee was a Texas County resident.

"Any employee who tests positive for COVID-19 is required to self-isolate to recover and receives support through our Paid Leave and Support Plan," Eaheart said.

"We knew from watching testing efforts in other areas of the country that when more tests are conducted, more positive test results come in. We were prepared for that, and the test results reinforce that broad employee testing is the right thing to do to help keep our employees safe and for our employees to understand their COVID-19 status and that of their peers. Only with this data, can we understand the full scope of the situation and use a data-driven and scientific approach to continuously improve," Eaheart said in a news release.

Currently, the plant is not making COVID-19 testing mandatory.

"We strongly encouraged all employees to get tested and wanted them to be tested. However, for legal reasons, we couldn’t make testing mandatory for an employee who isn’t ill. All the employees who were tested did not have symptoms. If an employee is feeling sick, we ask them to get medical guidance and get tested through their medical providers or the local health department," Eaheart said.

Seaboard Foods said it is working closely with the Texas County Health Department and Oklahoma State Department of Health to determine what additional actions can be taken to protect workers and its food supply.

"We've always taken great pride in our clean and well-run facilities and extensive biosecurity protocols, and we know this is important now more than ever. As part of our operations, we have robust anti-bacterial and anti-viral sanitization and sterilization protocols that occur daily and over the weekends. We have also implemented preventive measures and resources to help protect our employees who are working hard to continue providing food to the country," Eaheart said.

Eaheart said all employees wear PPE and get their temperature checked before each shift.

"Everyone who enters the plant has their temperature taken either through thermal scanning or handheld thermometers. Originally in early March, we had limited access to thermometers because of the increased demand, but we acquired a thermal scanning system and enough handheld thermometers to cover all entrances of the plant. We’ve increased temperature-taking from shift changes to throughout the entire workday. Thermal imaging is used in the main employee entrance of the plant. If someone has a fever when entering the plant, they are assessed by our health services department and sent home if confirmed they have a fever," Eaheart said.

Guides and barriers have also been installed to create traffic patterns for entering and exiting to help guide employees through the plant that promotes and reinforces social distancing.

FOX 25 asked if at any point the plant would have to temporarily shut down due to COVID-19.

"We are committed to protecting the safety and health of our employees and will continue navigating the balance of ensuring the well-being of our employees’ while still working to meet our commitment to produce much-needed food for our customers and pork consumers in determining how we will continue operations," Eaheart said.

So far, Eaheart said 201 employees have recovered from the virus.

He said the plant is currently operating at 70%.

"We are following CDC and health department guidelines to self-isolate after testing. They must be released by their medical provider or the health department before they can return to work," Eaheart said.

"We remain committed to keeping you informed and will continue to provide updates as we identify solutions based on the data to incorporate in our operations. Our hope is that the information from our broad testing program will help bring peace of mind to our employees and for everyone to understand how our community has been affected by the global pandemic and can help guide our company’s and community’s ongoing response to COVID-19," Seaboard Foods said in a news release.

This is a developing story. Stay with FOX 25 for updates.