A COVID-19 outbreak at the Trident Seafoods plant in the small, remote community of Akutan has resulted in up to more than a third of the workers tested so far.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said Tuesday that 135 out of 307 tests came back positive from employees of the plant, the largest seafood processing facility in North America with a workforce that dwarfs the community’s population.
It was not immediately clear how many workers who tested positive showed symptoms of the virus.
Five employees have died, but not all due to issues related to COVID-19, government officials said. This includes someone who had 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 at the plant. Additional medical supplies and fans are being sent to the plant, government officials said.
The outbreak is the third in a seafood processing plant on the Aleut Islands, about a week in the Bering Sea $ 1 billion fishery.
Westward Seafoods, owner of Alyeska Seafoods Inc. in Unalaska, production temporarily halted on Friday due to a group of positive COVID-19 cases identified during the testing of workers at the Alyeska plant, according to a city update.
Alyeska “has drawn up their plans to respond to positive cases identified within their workforce”, which includes isolating people who test positive, helping to detect contact, investigating quarantine of people found as contact with infected people workers and to do more tests.
A message left behind at Seattle’s headquarters in Seattle on Tuesday was not returned.
An outbreak at another Unalaska plant, operated by UniSea, was halted earlier, although officials said they hoped to reopen by the weekend. A UniSea representative did not return a request Tuesday for information on the status of the test there and the possible reopening schedule.
All eyes are on Trident, given the reputation of the company in the industry and the remote location of the plant with difficult access and few medical resources. The plant is a closed campus where workers complete a 14-day quarantine before boarding the island.
This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.