Grim toll at spice company: 2 dead
Two workers succumb, others sick with coronavirus at El Chilar distributor in Apopka
It started with an announcement to workers in mid-April: There was coronavirus in the manufacturing plant at Mexican spice distributor El Chilar in Apopka. Everyone had to go home. They should get tested.
By April 20, one person was dead. Now there are two dead, the company confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel on Monday.
And several others are sick with the virus, said workers and family members of the employees who died.
Esmeralda Hernandez, who worked at El Chilar until she took her pregnancy leave on March 20, said her brother was at the plant when work stopped on April 13. The managers had just been made aware of a positive coronavirus case among their staff, Hernandez said, and the company was shutting down the following day.
Workers were told El Chilar, which distributes chili products to local Mexican vendors, would be using the time to deep clean, Hernandez said.
By that Friday, her brother, too, was getting tested after experiencing light symptoms, she said. He came back positive.
The next week, on April 20, El Chilar worker Julio Morales, who went by Cesar,
died at Advent Health Orlando from complications related to coronavirus. He was a 42-year-old father with a teenage daughter. Morales’ wife declined to comment for this story.
The second worker, who colleagues say died this week and went by his first name, which is also Julio, has not been fully identified.
The scale of the outbreak remains unknown. The Sentinel spoke to several employees and family members of the deceased who declined to comment for fear of retribution.
The company said the “the health and well-being of employees is the top priority.” El Chilar suspended operations “out of an abundance of caution” after it learned of the positive test result and employees were encouraged to get tested.
“The El Chilar team was deeply saddened when families shared that two employees passed away while the manufacturing facility was closed. We grieve the loss of these valued team members who were colleagues and friends,” El Chilar spokesman Tom Lindell said in an emailed statement. “We continue to extend condolences to their families and loved ones during this difficult time.”
When asked how many employees are sick and the name of second worker who died, Lindell said El Chilar “will not share health-related information about specific employees.”
Sister Ann Kendrick, a Catholic nun and longtime immigration advocate with the Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, said she, too, has received calls from workers who are concerned about what is happening at the plant.
“I know that people were sick there,” she said. “People contacted me, but they were afraid to be public about it.”
Nationally, concern over coronavirus outbreaks at manufacturing plants has heightened since three of the U.S.’s largest meat distributors, Tyson Foods, JBS USA and Smithfield Foods, were found to have continued operations at crowded facilities, becoming hotbeds for the virus. Outbreaks at more than 30 plants run by the three companies and others have left at least 17 dead and another 3,300 workers sick, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
In Apopka, Roberto Rizo, an independent distributor that purchases El Chilar’s products, said he knows several others are sick, too, but doesn’t know the exact number. He’s the cousin of Julio Morales, one of the El Chilar employees who died.
“When I heard about it, we started protecting ourselves,” Rizo said.
He helps move merchandise from a smaller distribution site the company has off Semoran Boulevard in Apopka to the company’s main manufacturing site on Superior Commerce Boulevard some 10 minutes down the road. The larger site is where the infected workers were employed, he said.
Lindell said Monday that operations at El Chilar “continue to be suspended at this time.”
But when the Orlando Sentinel visited the distribution center off Semoran Boulevard on Tuesday morning, at least six workers could be seen moving merchandise, sorting chilis and loading pallets onto a delivery truck registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation as belonging to El Chilar.
After 30 minutes, the truck pulled out and drove the merchandise to the company’s main facility, which appeared to be largely closed. At the distribution facility Tuesday, employees were seen wearing masks, face shields and gloves.
“El Chilar’s distribution operation continues in service with numerous protocols in place to protect employee health, per [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance,” Lindell said Tuesday night when asked why the distribution center remained open.
It’s unclear how much the company knew of the coronavirus cases prior to its closure. Hernandez said El Chilar employees were using gloves and masks in late March when she left on maternity leave.
An employee who spoke to the Sentinel under condition of anonymity put it plainly: “If there are a number of sick, it’s because something wasn’t handled in an appropriate way.”