Leaps in Kansas COVID-19 cases attributed to meatpacking facilities, official says
The three record-setting days of new novel coronavirus cases, consecutive and each larger than the last, were attributed to meatpacking facilities across Kansas, the state’s top health official said Friday.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman said the state is tracking 52 clusters across the state, including six at meat-packing facilities. Kansas set records for new single-day jumps in cases on Wednesday through Friday: 186 new cases, 271 and 295.
The jumps over the three days account for 752 or 27% of the total 2,777 confirmed cases since the first case was announced March 7.
“And then, of course, the thing that is really accounting for our uptick in cases now that you see is in six meatpacking plants with 250 cases and zero deaths,” Norman said during Gov. Laura Kelly’s daily briefing.
The increase in total cases could also be attributed to more available testing, Norman said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dispatched staff from Atlanta to help with the meatpacking clusters. Norman said three people from the CDC are in southwest Kansas working directly with meatpacking plants.
The state’s plants account for roughly 20% to 30% of the nation’s beef processing capacity.
Earlier in the week, Kelly said the federal government provided additional personal protective equipment and supplies to expand COVID-19 testing in a few counties with meat or food processing plants: Ford, Finney and Seward, which are all in southwest Kansas, and Lyon County in eastern Kansas.
Norman said people infected in Ford County have been “remarkably symptom-free” with no hospitalizations or deaths. Ford County had 350 cases Friday.
The federal government provided the supplies on the condition they be used in the meatpacking-heavy counties, Kelly said. Kansas received 2,000 Abbott tests, which deliver results in minutes rather than hours or days, and 5,000 other tests that must be sent to labs.
“Agriculture is a facet of our state’s most critical infrastructure – Kansas doesn’t just feed the state, we feed the world,” Kelly said in a statement. “This is particularly true of our frontline workers in meatpacking plants across the state who process a significant portion of the nation’s supply.”
The 52 total clusters in the state account for 940, or 33%, of the 2,777 cases. Additionally, 75 of the 111 reported deaths, or 68%, occurred at clusters. The main driver were clusters at 19 long-term care facilities, where there were 377 cases and 63 deaths.
Contributing: Jonathan Shorman of The Eagle
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 6:27 PM.