As economy opens, thousands get sick while on the job

NEW YORK — Even as President Trump urges getting people back to work and reopening the economy, an Associated Press analysis shows thousands of people are getting sick from COVID19 on the job.

Recent figures show a surge of infections in meatpacking and poultryprocessing plants. There’s been a spike of new cases among construction workers in Austin, Texas, where that sector recently returned to work. Even the White House has proven vulnerable, with positive coronavirus tests for one of Trump’s valets and for Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary.

The developments underscore the high stakes for communities nationwide as they gradually loosen restrictions on business.

“The people who are getting sick right now are generally people who are working,” Dr. Mark Escott, a regional health official, told Austin’s City Council. “That risk is going to increase the more people are working.”

Austin’s concerns will likely be mirrored in communities nationwide as the reopening of stores and factories creates new opportunities for the virus to spread.

To be sure, there are plenty of new infections outside the workplace — in nursing homes, and among retired and unemployed people, particularly in densely populated places such as New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and urban parts of New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Yet of the 15 U.S. counties with the highest percapita infection rates between April 28 and May 5, all are homes to meatpacking and poultryprocessing plants or state prisons, according to data compiled by the AP.

The county with the highest percapita rate was Tennessee’s Trousdale County, where nearly 1,300 inmates and 50 staffers recently tested positive at the privately run Trousdale Turner Correctional Center.

The No. 2 county on AP’s list is Nobles County in Minnesota, which now has about 1,100 cases, compared to two in midApril. The county seat, Worthington, is home to a JBS porkprocessing plant that employs hundreds of immigrants.

Also hard hit by recent infections are counties in Virginia, Delaware and Georgia where poultryprocessing plants are located.