May 05, 2020

Gov. Parson: state able to respond quickly to Triump Foods workers

Posted May 05, 2020 6:29 PM

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says the mass testing at Triumph Foods in St. Joseph helped the state respond quickly to those testing positive for COVID-19, yet displaying no symptoms.

Parson says test results disclose nearly 400 Triumph workers so far testing positive for the coronavirus though asymptomatic.

“Those people are all in quarantine now, which is good news. So, we’ve got them separated,” Parson tells reporters at a daily briefing on state COVID-19 response. “But, I also want to mention we did roughly 3,000 tests over the state of Missouri randomly over the weekend also and of those 3,000 tests there were nine which came back positive.”

Parson backs the decision by St. Joseph city officials to lift COVID-19 restrictions even with the results from the week-long Triumph testing, saying local officials know better than state officials what is best for their community.

“And they’ve got to figure out what do they think is the best thing to do for their communities,” Parson says. “And if they have a – quote – hot spot at any time during this 30 days they can take action and that’s why we purposely left it for them to do that in case we needed to make a change in the model on that. Again, it goes back to what our blanket policy was, what we believe we should do for the state of Missouri and what they should do as individuals in that city or county.”

State officials sent nearly 3,000 kits to St. Joseph to test Triumph workers last week. Northwest Health Services tested approximately 2,500 last week. It will test the remaining Triumph workers at its southside clinic. Results from the testing continue to roll in.

State Health Director Dr. Randall Williams says a team went to St. Joseph to search out anyone who came in contact with Triumph workers testing positive.

“They are up there talking to the people that were close to them,” according to Williams.  “We’re still trying to determine where the primary form of contact is, at the plant or where they live.”

Williams says those who are asymptomatic, yet test positive can return to work if they show no symptoms seven days after the test.

“I’ve been on the phone with them 5, 6 times a day, every day for two weeks now,” Williams says of Triumph officials. “And the CDC says for asymptomatic patients, remember for symptomatic patients it’s seven days from symptom onset and three days from symptom resolution, but if you don’t have any symptoms, you can’t use those. So, if go to the CDC website and it’s on our website they say its seven days from a positive test if you have no symptoms.”