A coronavirus outbreak with at least 38 confirmed cases has been traced to a fish-packing plant in Morgan Hill, according to health officials.
The previously unknown cluster of cases began at Lusamerica Foods Inc., a wholesale fish distributor, Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said in a committee meeting Tuesday.
The spouse of an employee at the plant was hospitalized several weeks ago, prompting the employee to get tested, Cody said. The company notified all its workers and has since counted 38 positives among them, many of whom were asymptomatic.
“We are experiencing cases, as most companies that are operating right now are,” Louise Moretti, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a phone call Tuesday. “We’ve been very fortunate that those that have tested positive, the majority are asymptomatic, so (they) are not experiencing the worst symptoms.”
Since the first employee’s test came back positive, all other workers have been tested, and those who tested negative will be tested again, a Lusamerica spokesperson added in a statement. The company has also closed down shared facilities where social distancing is “a challenge” like its cafeteria and locker rooms and is taking the temperature of every employee upon arrival at the facility.
Coronavirus has rippled through meatpacking and other food-packing facilities in California, including rural Kings County in the Central Valley, where an outbreak at the Central Valley Meat Company punted the county into the state’s top five in terms of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
At least nine industrial plants in Vernon are currently being investigated for coronavirus outbreaks, Los Angeles County health officials said Sunday, including several meat-processing facilities.
Lusamerica is a 35-year-old family-owned business with a second facility in Vernon, near Los Angeles, according to its website. It sells fish products primarily across the West Coast.
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