More than 90 COVID cases at Conestoga Meats deemed resolved
Posted Jan 20, 2021 05:45:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo Region's Medical Officer of Health has provided an update on a large outbreak affecting a local food processing plant.
As of Tuesday, 150 cases are attributed to the facility.
Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said to date, 99 cases have been deemed resolved.
“We expected to see a significant increase in cases after systematic testing of more than 600 employees over the last week,” said Dr. Wang in an e-mail statement.
She also noted that transmission is not necessarily occurring in the workplace.
“Due to significant social and household connections among workers, at this time 47 have been assessed to be community-acquired (e.g. through social interactions and household contact amongst workers outside the workplace) and 103 of the cases reported to date have an acquisition source that is unknown or are being currently assessed,” said Dr. Wang. “Additional cases have been detected through enhanced testing.”
Dr. Wang said Region of Waterloo Public Health is working closely with the workplace, noting strong infection and prevention control measures are in place.
She said, “This facility outbreak does not increase the risk for the broader community. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency notes there is no evidence to suggest that food is a likely source or route of transmission of the virus.”
Despite the number of actions taken, Dr. Wang said she expects to continue to see more cases confirmed due to the enhanced testing and current level of community transmission in Waterloo Region.
Public health previously confirmed the outbreak is the second at the facility, although it will not name the workplace due to privacy concerns and because it's not needed for contact tracing.
Sources have confirmed the location is Conestoga Meat Packers in Breslau.
Conestoga Meats has confirmed it is dealing with a second outbreak, but will not comment on how many cases have been confirmed. It does stress that it is working closely with public health and has invested $8-million dollars into enhanced cleaning measures and other protective protocols.
On Wednesday, the number of employees affected rose to 154.
