The spread of COVID cases at Guelph's Cargill Meat Solutions has now spread to its facility on Watson Parkway.
Guelph’s Cargill location on Watson Parkway currently has six positive COVID-19 cases as of Friday.
Danny Williamson, communications specialist at Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, confirmed Friday that the outbreak was declared on Jan. 8 and the six cases are associated with the outbreak.
Cargill’s meat processing facility on Dunlop Drive has reported over 172 cases to date and was also temporarily shut down for nearly two weeks in December as the cases rapidly increased.
Cargill spokesperson Daniel Sullivan said the company is not planning to temporarily close the Watson Parkway facility and the COVID-positive employees are currently in self-isolation as per safety protocols.
“We have mitigation plans in place to limit the spread of the virus and put safety first,” said Sullivan in an email.
“We also continue to work closely with health officials to ensure effective prevention, cleaning and quarantine protocols are followed within our facilities and beyond.”
Sullivan said Cargill has conducted contact tracing of the cases and is working with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health to monitor the situation of the facility which currently has over 600 employees.
“The protocols we put in place to support our staff at production facilities and in the field – including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and physical barriers, increased sanitation, social distancing, temperature testing, travel restrictions and visitor restrictions—continue,” said Sullivan.
“We want to work with everyone to focus on keeping people healthy and delivering safe food to people across Canada.”
Earlier this week, Wellington Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health confirmed that a 79-year-old male from Guelph died of COVID on Dec. 30 and the case was related to Cargill's meat processing facility on Dunlop Drive.
Sullivan said the 79-year-old man was a bus driver who provided transportation services to Cargill's Dunlop location and was not a Cargill employee.
"We were deeply saddened to hear reports of the fatality of a bus driver employed by a company providing transportation services to Cargill’s Dunlop Street facility," said Sullivan.
"Keeping people safe is core to our values. When our friends, colleagues and community are impacted by COVID-19, despite implementing best practices to protect our teams, we are heartbroken."
