The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has identified COVID-19 outbreaks at nine industrial facilities in Vernon, including five meatpacking plants.
The largest outbreak occurred at the Smithfield Foods-owned Farmer John plant — producer of the beloved Dodger Dog — where 153 of 1,837 employees tested positive for COVID-19 between March and May, the county said Sunday.
The other eight facilities with outbreaks are CLW Foods (meat), Vie De France Yamazaki (baked goods), Cal Farms Meat (meat), Takaokaya USA (green tea and other products), F. Gavina & Sons (coffee), Golden West Trading (meat), Overhill Farms (frozen food), and Rose and Shore (deli meat and prepared foods).
Fewer than 25 employees tested positive at each of those facilities. By L.A. County standards, an “outbreak” has occurred when five or more workers have contracted the virus.
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Though Vernon has just a few dozen residents and is almost exclusively industrial, workers who have contracted the virus in the city just south of Los Angeles could spread it in their own communities, the county warned.
“We are closely monitoring outbreaks within facilities in the city of Vernon, as many of the employees reside in adjacent southeast Los Angeles communities,” said Barbara Ferrer, the county health director.
“Our public health experts are making sure employees with the virus, and their families, remain quarantined to minimize exposure to others,” said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis.
In a statement, Smithfield Foods said its workers are “crucial to our nation’s response to COVID-19.”
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“We thank them for keeping food on America’s tables and have implemented aggressive measures to protect their health and safety during this pandemic,” the statement said.
Smithfield said the measures include a series of strict guidelines and protocols that follow or exceed guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The company said it has boosted its supply of masks and face shields, installed Plexiglas barriers on the production floor and in break areas and implemented mass temperature scanning systems to screen workers.
Employees are offered free testing for the novel coronavirus and paid quarantine time, and are told not to report to work if they are sick, Smithfield said; the company has also relaxed its attendance policies, eliminated co-pays for coronavirus-related treatment and extended a paid leave benefit to employees deemed medically at-risk.
Of the 153 Farmer John employees who tested positive, 41 have returned to work, according to L.A. County health officials.
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“During this pandemic, our entire industry is faced with an impossible choice: continue to operate to sustain our nation’s food supply or shutter in an attempt to entirely insulate our employees from risk,” the company said in a statement issued in early May. “It’s an awful choice; it’s not one we wish on anyone. It is impossible to keep protein on tables across America if our nation’s meat plants are not running.”
The outbreak at Smithfield’s Vernon plant is the largest listed by the county’s Public Health Department in a nonresidential setting.
Coronavirus outbreaks have plagued meatpacking plants nationwide since March, when much of the country went into lockdown. More than 10,000 COVID-19 cases have been linked to U.S. meatpacking plants, and at least three dozen workers are known to have died as of early May, according to an analysis by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica.
