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A COVID-19 outbreak at the Trident Seafoods factory in the tiny, remote community of Akutan has resulted in positive tests for more than a third of the workers tested so far.
The Alaska Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that 135 out of 307 tests returned positive among workers at the plant, the largest seafood processing facility in North America with a labor force. work that eclipsed the population of the community.
It was not immediately clear how many workers who tested positive were showing symptoms of the virus.
Five workers have been evacuated but not all over COVID-19 issues, state officials said. This includes one who developed respiratory problems on January 17, leading to the discovery of the virus in the plant. Four workers tested positive that day, the company said.
Other tests are continuing. There are around 700 workers at the factory. Additional medical supplies and ventilators are being sent to the plant, state officials say.
The outbreak is the third at a seafood processing plant in the Aleutian Islands, about a week after the billion-dollar Bering Sea pollock fishery began.
Westward Seafoods, owner of Alyeska Seafoods Inc. in Unalaska, temporarily halted production on Friday based on a cluster of positive COVID-19 cases identified during surveillance testing of workers at the Alyeska plant, according to a city update.
Alyeska “has implemented her plans to respond to positive cases identified within her workforce” which includes isolating those who test positive, assisting with contact tracing, quarantine people found to be in close contact with infected workers and to perform additional testing.
A message left at the company’s Seattle headquarters on Tuesday was not returned.
An outbreak at another plant in Unalaska, operated by UniSea, was shut down 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 testing there and the possible reopening schedule.
All eyes are on Trident, given the company’s reputation in the industry and the plant’s remote location with difficult access and few medical resources. The factory is a closed campus where workers do a 14-day quarantine before traveling to the island.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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