Outbreak at Dole plant in Springfield nears 300 cases

The total positive coro- navirus case related to the Dole Fresh Vegetables plant in Springfield is now over 270, according to the Clark County Combined Health District.

Results from Saturday’s mass testing of the plant’s employees returned 236 pos- itive results, CCCHD spokes- person Emma Smales said. Prior to the testing, the county had confirmed 38 positive cases connected to the outbreak.

Smales said all results from the weekend’s testing of 829 employees are in, but the district is still going through data to make sure they do not have any duplicates.

“But that number should not change by more than one or two,” Smales said. “But as contact tracing continues and contacts are identified, the total outbreak number will increase.”

Charles Patterson, CCCHD commissioner, said Dole officials have been “very help- ful” and have “gone out of their way to help us.”

“They actually paid the employees to come in for that testing on Saturday,” Patterson said.

But despite the outbreak, the plant will remain open, according to a statement from William Goldfield, director of corporate communications for Dole, on Friday.

“From our conversations with CCCHD they maintain that closure is not warrant e d,” the statement said. “They will be providing resources to conduct return-to-work screenings for our employees and are very focused on helping us get Dole back to work.”

The CCCHD said they do not have the authority to shut down the plant. They said that would fall to the Ohio Department of Health.

The Springfield News-Sun reached out to ODH, which said that’s not the case.

“They do have the authority to ask them to close. But they would probably reach out to the state and ask them to do it instead because it’s a bigger undertaking,” Melanie Amato, press secretary for the Ohio Department of Health, said.

Amato said ODH has not considered shutting Dole down.

“We are waiting to see what is going to happen now that we have all of those confirmed cases,” Amato said.

Ohio surpassed 40,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus Friday. The state reported 43,731 total cases and 2,667 deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to ODH.