Are the midwestern superclusters coming our way anytime soon?
File image of meat processing plant (KOIN)
Meat Packing Plants
I did a little digging on meat packing plants in California… Here’s a Google map of meat our packing plants.
I didn’t spend much time looking into plants nearest to the Bay Area as yet. I ran out of time because my eye was caught by recent headlines about one CA plant – Central Valley Meat Company in Hanford CA (Kings County). On May 7, the Associated Press reported that At least 138 employees contracted COVID-19 at California meat packaging plant.
HANFORD, Calif. (AP) — At least 138 employees at a meat packing plant in central California have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Reports say several employees at the Central Valley Meat Company in Hanford first tested positive for the virus more than a week ago.
Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon said the meat packing plant now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the coronavirus cases in the rural county. The company employs about 900 workers at two plants in Hanford and Vernon and continues to operate.
Company officials say they are following CDC guidelines to keep their employees safe.
The Kings County website is not sharing any information on locations of outbreaks, but most of the cases are clearly related to Central Valley Meat, located in Hanford. See the charts below (from the Kings Co. website on May 8, and note how the Kings curve is shooting out of sight!The Central Valley Meat website gives no information on the infection. But the website displays the following message as a delayed overlay to the front page, all but ordering employees to show up.
Central Valley Meat In light of the Coronavirus pandemic and the new statewide “shelter in place” order from California’s governor, we want to remind all Central Valley Meat Company employees as well as our customers and consuming public that Central Valley Meat Company is considered an “essential business”. Because Central Valley Meat is an important component of the food supply chain all employees are asked to report to work for their normal shift and times. We are also hiring additional workers and we encourage those seeking work to apply at https://www.centralvalleymeat.com/careers
National context and background
MSNBC’S Lawrence O’Donnell reports on meat packers, prisons and nursing homes…
California journalists and reporters need to better investigate the COVID-19 effects in our meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes.
The risk is the kind of second-wave surge that killed thousands in the Bay Area during the 1918 Spanish influenza
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that he will open up book stores, clothing stores, toy stores and florists for curb-side pickup. (By Area News Group File Photo)
By Mercury News & East Bay Times Editorial Boards, May 5, 2020
This is no time to go back to business as usual.
The intense longing for a return to normalcy in California and other states is understandable. But the rush to reopen businesses is premature and ignores the warnings of health experts and the basic science of the novel coronavirus.
The risk is the kind of second-wave surge that killed thousands in the Bay Area during the 1918 Spanish influenza. Indeed, a draft government report forecasts sharp increases in COVID-19 cases and deaths nationally beginning around May 14.
Yet Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the next stage in reopening California’s economy will take place Friday. The governor said that he will allow book stores, clothing stores, toy stores, florists and other businesses to reopen for curbside pick-up. Associated manufacturers that support those retail stores will also be allowed to resume production. Some counties in more rural areas will be allowed to decide whether to reopen restaurants that have made accommodations for social-distancing dining.
Newsom’s gamble is similar to one Bay Area county health officials made last week in allowing construction projects to resume. It threatens the lives of workers and their families, neighbors and acquaintances. The economy will eventually bounce back. But lost lives can never be recovered.
The governor said the state was ready to move into “Phase 2” of the reopening process because it is on schedule with six different criteria: stability of hospitalizations, personal protective equipment inventory, health care surge capacity, testing capacity, contact tracing capability and public health guidance in place.
But California’s contact tracing capability is almost non-existent. Its testing capacity is at 25,000 tests per day in a state with a population of nearly 40 million people. That is equal to 62.5 tests per 100,000 people. Estimates by Harvard University researchers indicate that the minimum number of tests should be 152 per 100,000 people, meaning California is only doing 41% percent of the minimum.
It is absolutely essential that store owners and manufacturers follow the state’s new orders to ensure employee and customer safety. The failure to do so could result in a surge of hospitalizations, setting California back months in its recovery.
California isn’t the only state risking opening for business too soon. Governors in nearly a dozen states, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are going well beyond Newsom’s orders.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp opened up movie theaters Monday after allowing hair salons, massage parlors and bowling alleys to resume business last week. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster told department stores and retailers that they could start allowing shoppers in their businesses. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee allowed restaurants, retail outlets and gyms to reopen last week. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will allow general offices to open next week, along with retail businesses.
The moves threaten the governors’ credibility and residents’ confidence in their leadership.
In California, the decisions on when to open businesses should be based on science — not hope and a prayer.
California’s COVID-19 Statewide Update page shows a chart plotting the past month’s day-to-day numbers on new confirmed cases and deaths, an excellent resource for understanding where we stand in the midst of the pandemic. Yesterday’s increase of 1,469 positive cases would suggest that California will exceed the 50,000 mark in cases sometime today or tomorrow. We will surely top 2,000 deaths today.
Here is from today’s report:
How are COVID-19 cases progressing?
Data as of April 29, 2020 at 11:00 am.
There were 1,469 new confirmed cases Tuesday. The total number of deaths is 1,887, an increase of 78 from Monday.
Other charts show:
How COVID-19 cases are progressing in each county
Gender and ethnicity of those infected with COVID-19
Complaint filed with state over evacuated nursing facility yesterday
Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Riverside CA
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP News) — Riverside County officials have filed a complaint over conditions at a skilled nursing facility that was evacuated after staff failed to show up for work during the coronavirus outbreak.
Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the county’s public health officer, has asked state health officials for an assessment of Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center before the facility reopens. He also asked in his April 20 letter for the state to determine whether workers acted ethically and professionally when they failed to show up for their shifts.
“We believe that substantial ongoing issues relate to their staffing and infection control plans, and during our inspection of the premises subsequent to my commandeer order identified structural issues,” Kaiser wrote.
The complaint comes after Kaiser ordered the evacuation of more than 80 patients from the facility on April 8 when insufficient staff showed up to care for them.
No one answered the phones at the facility on Tuesday. Messages sent to administrator Larry Mays weren’t immediately returned. On its website, the facility posted a message saying the evacuation was the right decision and it was following up with residents and their families to ensure a smooth transition.
Skilled nursing facilities have been hit hard by the coronavirus, and residents are considered especially vulnerable due to their age and other health conditions and close proximity to each other. The Southern California county has reported more than 650 virus cases among residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe life-threatening illness, including pneumonia.
In his complaint, Kaiser wrote that Riverside County officials tested residents at Magnolia after learning of virus cases. Two days later, officials received a request for staff to cover three eight-hour shifts as the facility’s routinely scheduled workers weren’t showing up.
The county provided staffing for the next day and warned Mays that an emergency plan was required, he said. When the facility continued to have staffing problems, Kaiser ordered the evacuation.
The county took over the facility and evaluated whether it could be used to house virus patients, but found cleanliness issues and possible structural concerns with the flooring would have made doing so too expensive.
The California Department of Public Health declined to comment on the complaint, pending an investigation.
The Central Valley Meat website gives no information on the infection. But the website displays the following message as a delayed overlay to the front page, all but ordering employees to show up.
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