Walla Walla County seeing broader community transmission of COVID-19

WALLA WALLA—Walla Walla County Department of Community Health (DCH). has confirmed that Sunday, April 19th, 2020 had the largest spike in daily cases for COVID-19 in the county. Over the weekend, they reported six additional cases of COVID-19, five of which resulted on Sunday.

A total of seventeen additional cases have been confirmed since Friday, April 10th , 2020 increasing Walla Walla County’s case count to thirty-seven. It is important to note that the local daily case count for COVID-19 is not at its peak.

According to the April 21, 2020 DCH press release, five of the new cases are employees at FirstFruits, Inc. in Prescott.

DCH states that FirstFruits has been engaged in preventative measures prior to their first reported case:

FirstFruits told all employees that they did not have to come to work, thus they are able to keep six feet of physical distancing between their team members throughout most of their operation.

In areas where they could not further separate team members, face coverings are required. First Fruits worked to supply masks to all employees, but procurement was difficult, and the company could not get enough supply, thus several employees have made masks or face coverings for their co-workers.

In addition, FirstFruits is screening for symptoms before entry into the facility, and are cleaning surfaces per the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations.

Health officials caution that the local daily case count for COVID-19 is not at its peak.

“The critical point of information we want the greater Walla Walla Valley to understand is that we are NOT in the clear and we need to be diligent in staying home,” said Meghan DeBolt, Director. “When or if you are in public spaces, keep 6-feet distance from others, wear a face covering if you cannot ensure this physical distancing, WASH YOUR HANDS, and please, please stop congregating at parks and other spaces – we need your help to keep our community safe.” “Although the State of Washington has seen a ‘flattening of the curve’, Walla Walla County has not,” said DeBolt. “Now is not the time to rebel against the stay at home orders; we are on the brink of having broader community transmission and need to be diligent for a few more weeks.”

“We would like to publicly commend First Fruits, and their CEO Jim Hazen, for being early adopters inputting measures in place to protect their workforce,” said DeBolt. “They put measures in place well before we reached out to them.”

Tyson Fresh Meats (Tyson), in Wallula, WA now counts over 90 Tyson employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, eight of these are Walla Walla County residents. The majority of cases live in Benton or Franklin Counties; for an accurate case count, they are tracking cases and their location of contact on their website.

The Department of Community Health has been engaged with both local and corporate Tyson teams since April 6th when their Environmental Health Team met with Tyson to discuss their current cases and mitigation measures. Since then, the DCH has been in daily communication with Tyson to ensure the required mitigation measures are put in place; this included a site visit on April 13th , and a robust mitigation plan that is reinforced by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries guidance. All mitigation measures were required to be implemented by Monday, April 20, 2020.

On Tuesday, April 21 County health officials will again inspect the site to monitor implementation compliance.

“In addition to the prevention measures we have required Tyson to implement, we are also requiring Tyson to allow the DCH to test all employees for COVID-19,” said DeBolt. “This will give us a good picture of disease prevalence and will help to screen out asymptomatic cases or those who are just beginning to show symptoms.”

This testing will take place within the next week and, after testing, all employees will be required to isolate at home until test results come back. “This may require the plant to close for a day or two, depending on when the testing can take place and how long it takes to get results back,” said DeBolt. “Quickly identifying cases, getting them isolated, along with their household members, and quarantining their close contacts is critical to our public health response to COVID-19,” said DeBolt. “We hope to see additional testing capacity within our community in weeks to come.”

Health officials urge the community to please be responsible and take all COVID-19 safety precautions seriously. “As a community, we can control the spread of this virus.”