A Blumenort business announced on Tuesday that more than two dozen of its staff have tested positive for COVID-19. The cluster of cases is at Exceldor, the business formerly known as Granny's. Steinbachonline.com (STOL) had an exclusive interview Wednesday morning with Rod Harder, General Manager of Western Operations for Exceldor.

hat we can be positive. We've got the latest, greatest best practices in place. These 27 cases have been identified by public health in our joint investigation as being from outside community spread. So nothing is transmitting in our plant and that is a key message. And, those are the cases that we have right now. We are dealing with those as we speak.

STOL: How is it possible for 27 cases at your plant and none of them being workplace transmission?

Rod: It's a great question. The question of 'why us?' could also be used to sort of say in the first wave, 'why not us?'. We know that COVID doesn't discriminate between workplaces, it spreads in communities wherever it gets involved. And what we've seen is that there has been a number of transmissions in communities that have our employees in it. And so, in some ways we mirror the experience in Manitoba in that as we see the community cases spreading, we've been affected.

STOL: So these are 27 employees of Exceldor and none of them picked up COVID-19 at the plant in Blumenort?

Rod: That is what public health has determined with us, yes.

STOL: Do these individuals live in the Blumenort community?

Rod: We pull employees from a wide variety of areas. Just for context, 650 plant employees and 27 cases. So, that many employees, being a strong rural employer, we pull from southern Manitoba, Southern Health region then, as well as Winnipeg Health Region.

STOL: Is it true that one of your employees with COVID-19 passed away?

Rod: Yes. (He) contacted the virus outside of our workplace, as all of our cluster of cases have. He worked for us for almost six years and was well loved by his fellow employees. We pulled all of our 650 plant employees off the line in small, socially distanced routes to inform them. We're all shocked and saddened to hear that somebody had died that had COVID. Employees described him as a gentle giant, someone who always wanted to help you, always happy. And it's tragic to see that anybody should die. We're not certain if he died from COVID itself directly or an underlying health concern that we were made aware of. We are not medical experts, but public health of course is fully investigating. Regardless of the exact cause for that matter, it just serves as a strong reminder to follow public health guidelines and be careful with all aspects of our life.

STOL: Where did this employee live?

Rod: He was one of our Winnipeg employees.

STOL: What measures are being taken to ensure workplace transmission does not happen at the plant in Blumenort?

Rod: We are working with everybody possible to find best practices and implement them fully in our plant. We were one of the first, for example, to bring temperature screening to the meat industry and have been doing so since the very beginning of March. We have a long list of things that we do, I will just sort of hit the high points. We have a very strict quarantine and self-isolation policy and for that matter when it comes to these cases the public can be assured that anybody who is in contact with these people and have had the tracing been done in their social groups, etc, both public health and Exceldor Cooperative Western Operations is ensuring that they are quarantined and isolated. And then of course, public health talks with them daily to ensure that they are following those protocols that are in place for isolation. So that's an important consideration here as well. We have these deep quarantine rules to see exactly what we are doing. We are promoting self monitoring and understanding of the health. We've got posters everywhere, reading materials given out, every paycheque there is something in the stubs talking about a certain aspect to things. We have mounted sanitizers everywhere. We have reinforced since March our sanitization efforts and directed flow of employees, separating employees. We spent $1.1 million at this plant alone on COVID related precautions. We've probably got about a mile of plexiglass if we strung it all out that we've put into our plant in different areas. We've got tips for carpooling, questionnaires when anybody comes into our building from any place to ensure that they are safe. We've got markings on the hallways. People that are anywhere close together, proper personal protective equipment, masks, shields. And we've done some mock drills on what if we had a COVID case for the many months that we didn't, just to ensure we were ready for it and the contact tracing was effective. And we've been used as a positive example by Workplace Health and Safety of what other plants should be doing as well. So we are confident that we've put in the best practices possible in our plant. Having said that, we are always open to new ideas and implement whatever is best.

STOL: Did the 27 cases happen just recently?

Rod: As we've seen in other examples throughout the world, given an opportunity in a group to spread, COVID will spread very rapidly. Our first case was on October the 8th. And now we are at 27.

STOL: Does that mean some of the first employees to test positive have now reported back to work?

Rod: Yes, that's a good point. We have employees coming back to work already. It's the new, unusual way of doing business I suppose.

STOL: Is there any threat whatsoever to the meat as far as contamination?

Rod: No. That's a great question. CFIA has been extremely clear on the studies that determine that there is no risk of transmission of COVID-19 into the food supply of a poultry processor.

STOL: Is there any additional cleaning that is being done in the areas that these 27 individuals work?

Rod: Yes. Beginning and early March we put extra money and time into sanitization. Not that we thought there was any chance we were doing a poor job but just as an extra measure. In our office for example, our door handles get wiped down hourly. We are doing more than is being requested. As a cooperative business, our model is a little different than some others and that our concerns naturally go beyond the bottom line and we are living off those values in all of this. I am extremely proud of our management team and the genuine concern they have is a top priority that our employees are safe.

STOL: Are the 27 cases throughout the entire plant or one particular area?

Rod: That's another great question. They are spread out. Which indicates that while they may come from certain social groups that get together outside of work and happen to work at our facility, it's not that they are in any one area. They are everywhere.

Meanwhile, in a written statement, a provincial spokesperson has said the following:

We are aware of COVID-19 cases reported at a business in Blumenort. A thorough inspection will be conducted, though our initial review has shown that measures have been taken in the workplace to protect employees. The investigation is still pending.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) scientists have confirmed that chicken and turkey do not spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.

At this time there is no evidence of workplace transmission; cases appear to be as a result of community transmission. We remind the public in the Blumenort community to practice good hygiene (including frequent hand washing, avoiding touching your face, coughing into your sleeve and disinfecting frequently touched surface), maintaining physical distancing as much as possible when outside of the home, staying home when you’re sick and wearing a non-medical mask to protect others in situations where physical distancing cannot be consistently maintained.