By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri health officials now report 295 employees of Triumph Foods in St. Joseph have tested positive for COVID-19.
Northwest Missouri Health Services concluded its onsite testing of Triumph employees in south St. Joseph this morning. Results have been coming in and are not complete. Northwest tested nearly 2,500 employees this week. Triumph employees who were not working at the plant this week will be tested in the next few days at the Northwest Health Services southside St. Joseph office. The most tests came on Tuesday when Northwest tested around 920 employees.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reports 295 Triumph employees with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19.
State officials sent nearly 3,000 test kits to St. Joseph after Triumph reported its first cases among employees.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says Triumph Foods became a test of sorts for the state’s new strategy of rapidly deploying COVID-19 test kits to a potential hot spot in an effort to head off a massive outbreak.
“And that’s the first big major test that we’ve done,” Parson tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “Most of the people that have tested positive are asymptomatic. So, the good news to that is we know who they are, they’re not sick, so we can take action with that.”
Parson says Triumph, which processes one-and-a-half billion pounds of pork a year, is an important part of the national food chain.
“Look, that institution up there, that business up there, is not only just critical to the local community up there, but really what it does for the United States and the world,” according to Parson. “I mean, they’re part of the food chain and St. Joe has that on their shoulders a little bit, having that company there, we’ve got to make sure we keep that running.”
State officials are awaiting more test results.