YORK, Pa. —
The York City Bureau of Health has traced a disproportionately large number of COVID-19 cases in its Latino community to a specific facility.
York City’s population is a third Latino, but they account for the majority of the city’s 198 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Mayor Michael Helfrich.
When the Bureau of Health saw this statistic, they began to investigate why the Latino population was disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After meeting with the different patients our Bureau of Health started to see a pattern that many of these cases were coming from the same facility,” Helfrich said. “Either they were employees of the facility or they were family members of those employees.”
Helfrich declined to name the facility, but confirmed it was outside York County.
Dr. Luis Garcia of Family First Health told the York Daily Record that several of his COVID-19 positive patients were either employees—or had family who were employees—of Plainville Farms, a turkey-processing plant in New Oxford, Adams County.
Family First Health released a statement:
“To protect the privacy of our patients and without adequate contact tracing data, we cannot speak to where or how any patient contracted COVID19. We can say that COVID19 is a very contagious virus and we are advising all of our patients, especially those who may work in higher risk work environments, to follow all the health and safety requirements and recommendations to reduce their risk of contraction of COVID19.”
Plainville Farms has enacted new COVID-19 mitigation measures, according to a press release from the company’s president, Mickey Baugher. The plant stopped processing live turkeys April 7 and has since been run by 25 percent of its normal workforce “to promote enhanced social distancing.”
The plant follows the state’s safety recommendations for employees, including taking daily temperatures and requiring employees wear PPE. They’re also paying hourly workers more during the crisis.
Plainville Farms declined to confirm having employees who tested positive for COVID-19. However, the press release said, “Investigations of potential positive employees were done to identify other employees that may have had contact. All employees with contact were sent home for a 14 day self-quarantine."
York City is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to make sure the facility is monitored, Mayor Helfrich said.
“We’ve also talked to this facility and they’re going to be distributing more educational materials to their employees,” Helfrich said.
The York Bureau of Health is in contact with every confirmed positive COVID-19 patient in the city. The bureau is now making a special effort to reach the hard-hit Latino community.
“We have three Spanish-speaking people who are part of that team and they are reaching out to anyone who tests positive and their household contacts to make sure that they have the guidance they need to be safe and to protect themselves,” said Barbara Kovacs, director of the Bureau of Health.
After learning many of the facility’s employees carpool to work, the Bureau of Health is offering them special guidance: wear a mask inside the car and frequently sanitize surfaces like door handles.