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COVID-19 UPDATES: Local plant deals with COVID-19
NOTE: This story was edited after press time to reflect the corrected information supplied by officials at GREAT DANE. The correction appears in BOLD.
A local manufacturing plant has taken precautions after being notified of two unidentified employees testing positive for COVID-19.
According to the main office of Great Dane, based in Savannah, Georgia, the company was notified Monday by health officials about the positive test results in Brazil.
Citing a desire to be transparent about what the company is doing to protect customers and employees, Brandie Fuller, the vice-president of marketing and media relations, contacted The Brazil Times Thursday afternoon to confirm details about the situation.
Fuller said the two employees worked a shift on Friday, April 24. The employees were not symptomatic when they arrived at work. However, they both became symptomatic over the weekend and tested positive: One employee lives in Clay County, with the second employee living in Vigo County.
Great Dane has protocols in place in case of this type of scenario, said Fuller. The company utilizes recommendations by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, including temperature checks for arriving employees, a questionnaire to determine an employee’s potential exposure, and provides handwashing and sanitizing stations inside the plant. The plant also utilizes CDC recommended sanitizing protocols between each shift as extra precautions to protect the health and welfare of employees.
“Employees are provided masks when they work - it is optional for the employees - but we try to make sure they have a comfortable mask when they work,” said Fuller, who added where the two employees worked was a small, contained area within the plant and limited the exposure to employees in that area. “When the health department contacted us on Wednesday, the other workers on that shift were sent home to self-isolate.”
The two employees diagnosed with COVID-19 as well as the 31 shift workers in the area will be off work for 14 days, and they have the option to use some of their vacation time or unemployment - Fuller said whichever works best for the employee.
“The company will continue to cover the cost of their continued health insurance,” said Fuller, about the company’s continued effort to limit the exposure of COVID-19 at the beginning of every shift. “Employees know to follow the handwashing and social distancing protocols. Our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and our communities.”
The Clay County Health Department confirms the new case of COVID-19, now making the total 20, after a week of staying at 19. (The second confirmed case will be posted as part of Vigo County’s data for COVID-19.)
The new patient is currently in self-isolation at home. Further details about COVID-19 patients are not released due to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Local health officials confirm 224 residents have been tested, with one death reported as of Thursday, April 30, 2020.
The Indiana State Department of Health reports 17,835 positive cases reported among the 6.7 million residents in Indiana, with 94,998 residents tested, and the reported deaths at 1,007.
The state is also providing new information regarding probable deaths caused by COVID-19. These deaths, 107 as of Thursday, April 30, are those for which a physician listed COVID-19 as a contributing cause based on X-rays, scans, and other clinical symptoms. Still, the patient did not receive a positive test, and there is no other record available.
