The Eastern Shore Health District released numbers Friday that showed approximately 18% of tested poultry plant workers on the Shore tested positive for the coronavirus.
Last week, around 3,100 tests were conducted. So far, they’ve received about 2,875 of those results with approximately 510 positives.
The Virginia Department of Health’s Friday numbers showed 648 positive tests in Accomack County and 193 in Northampton.
The health district said the department’s numbers only reflect about 85 of the 510 positive results.
It could take several days for the cases to appear in the state’s numbers because the labs that processed the tests are not connected to VDH’s electronic reporting system, the health district said. Each result has to be entered into the database manually.
The Shore’s health district also noted that some of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 do not live in Virginia. It did not specify how many.
The Washington Post reported more than two weeks ago that health officials were concerned that the outbreaks at the two poultry plants — one operated by Perdue Farms, the other by Tyson Foods — could overwhelm the hospital.
Purdue released a statement Friday saying it has hosted virtual town hall webinars at more than 15 locations — including Accomack County — to answer questions from community leaders and explain safety measures.
“We wanted to ensure that the local leaders in these communities had a good understanding of the safety measures we’ve put in place, give them the opportunity to ask us questions directly, and know they can call us if they have an idea that will further bolster our efforts to protect our associates and neighbors,” Tracy Morris, vice president of human resources at Perdue, said in a news release. “Good ideas can come from anywhere.”
Most of the state moved into phase 1 of reopening Friday, but Gov. Ralph Northam granted Accomack County’s request to delay its reopening another two weeks, until May 29. Northampton did not delay its reopening.
Northam’s amended executive order says that while Accomack’s population is .39% of Virginians, 2.14% of the positive cases statewide are in the county.
In response to the outbreaks at the chicken plants, there was a mass testing clinic offered last week to the community at Eastern Shore Community College.
The health district reported that 1,380 individuals were tested at the clinic. Of those tested, 49 were positive, 1,290 were negative and 41 were inconclusive or invalid.
The health district said it had attempted to contact everyone who had tested positive and that it would begin calling those with a negative test result Monday.
Jessica Nolte, 757-247-4513, jnolte@dailypress.com
