By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Testing of all Triumph Foods employees for COVID-19 continues, with a target of wrapping up onsite testing at the St. Joseph plant by Friday.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 707 employees, who presented asymptomatically, had samples collected for testing at work on Monday. Results were received Thursday, and 92 of those are positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Additionally, 34 of the plant’s employees had received positive results after being tested prior to this week.
Northwest Health Services interim CEO Rodney Hummer says more than 2,000 employees have been tested for the coronavirus in the past 72 hours.
“We are testing pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic people that do not have temperatures and are not having any features, signs, and symptoms of COVID-19,” Hummer tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Triumph has more than 2,800 employees.
The Missouri Department of Health provided test kits to St. Joseph to conduct the tests which are being processed at a commercial lab.
Hummer says it’s a relatively short process, taking about a minute to swab the nose.
“They lay down on a cot and our nurses and our nurse practitioners take the culture and, boom, it’s done.”
Most report it is mildly uncomfortable. Hummer says a cotton swap is inserter deep in a nostril.
“It goes back a ways and they do that to get a really good culture,” according to Hummer.
Hummer has been checking on Triumph employees who went through the process.
“It was amazing to see how many people say, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t bad at all. It just tickled the back of my nose,’” Hummer says.
State officials have stated they hope to head off any potential COVID-19 outbreak at Triumph Foods, because of its importance to the national food supply chain. Triumph process 1.5 billion pounds of pork annually at the St. Joseph plant.