May 21, 2020

Dubois County Dealing with COVID-19 Outbreak at Turkey Processing Plant

Original story from   WNIN-FM

Article origination WNIN-FM
Dubois County Health Department Environmental Health Specialist Shawn Werner briefs the media Thursday afternoon. - Steve Burger/WNIN

Dubois County Health Department Environmental Health Specialist Shawn Werner briefs the media Thursday afternoon.

Steve Burger/WNIN

A week after an outbreak of COVID-19 at a turkey processing plant in Huntingburg, Dubois County health officials are confident the outbreak is contained to that facility.

At a news conference Thursday in Jasper, Dubois County health  officials confirmed that a strike team from the Indiana State Department of Health tested workers at the Farbest Foods processing plant.

WFIE-TV reported that nearly 600 employees were tested at the plant last week. One hundred six results came back positive for COVID-19. The plant was closed for several days but has since reopened. Huntingburg Mayor Dennis Spinner says he’s happy with the response by local and state health teams.

“We’re certainly concerned but not alarmed by some of those numbers, and I think that there has been a consistent effort to manage it in a proper way.”

As of Thursday, there were 169 positive cases of COVID-19 reported in Dubois County, with two deaths.

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