UPDATE, Saturday, May 2 | On Saturday morning, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported that 359 employees and contract workers of Triumph Foods, who had no related symptoms, have received positive results for COVID-19.
MDHSS said results from this testing will continue to come in on a rolling basis and will provide more updates.
UPDATE, Friday, May 1 | The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Friday that additional test results have been received from a round of testing at the Triumph Foods pork processing plant.
As of Friday afternoon, 295 employees had tested positive. More than 2,300 employees have been tested so far, though it wasn't clear if the results from all 2,300 tests had been received.
UPDATE, 4:30 p.m. | In a statement to 41 Action News Triumph Foods said the increased number of positive cases "was not unexpected given the highly contagious nature of the virus..."
The company plans to use the testing results to develop "staffing and work plans" at the plant.
EARLIER | More than 125 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Triumph Foods plant in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Heath and Senior Services said Thursday they launched a testing program at the plant earlier this week, collecting samples from 1,500 employees.
As of Thursday, the results from 707 of those employees indicated 92 positive tests; 34 other employees had previously tested positive.
Officials are awaiting the results of the remainder of the tests.
Although the state assigns positive COVID-19 cases based upon where a patient lives, the latest statewide totals of COVID-19 cases in the state didn’t appear to completely reflect the new cases from the plant.
Employees who tested positive have been told to isolate themselves and work with local health officials on contact tracing.
Employees who tested negative were notified by the company.
The facility processes pork products.
It was not immediately clear if the plant has had to scale back production due to the number of employees that tested positive.
