-May 2,2020-
With Tulare County infections on the rise, Ruiz Foods is among those being impacted at its Dinuba and Tulare, Ca manufacturing facilities. Several production lines at the Mexican frozen food plants have been shut down confirms the company with a reported 18 employees testing positive.
Tulare County continues to have the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases out of the six county Central San Joaquin Valley area. A company spokesperson says “mirroring Tulare County itself, we noticed an increase in the positives being reported to us by the TCHHS shortly after the three-day Easter weekend.”
Indeed a Dinuba nursing home has also been impacted Tulare County’s Covid-19 positive count is 578 and tragically – 35 deaths as of today. The latest hospital count in Tulare County has 32 patients hospitalized and 6 of them in ICU.The County has announced it would set up two virus testing sites to open May 4 in Dinuba and in Porterville, at the memorial buildings. Each site will try to do 132 tests per day.
The new sites should help health officials improve contact tracing and COVID-19 tracking in the county.
The company says “Ruiz Foods has been taking extraordinary and proactive measures since before Covid-19 was identified as a pandemic.”
In a statement the company offered their account.
“The situation has been a challenge for employers, especially as guidance has changed. We immediately imposed travel restrictions, hygiene requirements, and educated our team members to prevent infection. We have implemented temperature screening and mandatory mask wearing. We have enhanced our already stringent sanitation processes, and worked to improve physical distancing within the facility to the maximum extent feasible.
Following CDC, OSHA, and local health authority guidance, we inform any team member who we learn has been exposed to a Covid-19 diagnosed person – whether that exposure is from another team member or a member of the community. We are placing any exposed team members off work for a minimum of 14 days. We also work with the team member to get tested.
Original guidance was to refer the team member to their physician, and we have been doing that. We also have been working with Tulare County HHS and other partners to increase testing options. This has been a challenge, but as more testing options become available we will be able to get more team members tested. In fact, later this week, we are working to have mobile testing units in place in Dinuba to assist us with this process.
This is a pandemic and data changes constantly. Just as governmental and health authorities are throttling restrictions up and down to minimize Covid-19 cases, Ruiz Foods is making data based decisions about our operations. As the level of spread in our communities impacts our Team Members, we will consider the impact and run those lines and shifts that we feel can safely run.
At the same time, while we recognize that we are an essential business, what is and will always be more important to Ruiz Foods is the health and safety of the Team Members who work in our facilities.