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BOSTON TWP. – So far, 28 Ingham County residents are among those impacted by a COVID-19 outbreak at a poultry farm in Ionia County.
Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, located off Interstate 96 between Saranac and Clarksville, first reported one employee who tested positive for the virus two weeks ago.
Since then, the single case has become an outbreak impacting multiple Michigan counties, according to Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail, who spoke about the outbreak at a Tuesday media briefing.
Herbruck’s is the largest egg producer in Michigan, according to a recent company press release.
Vail said the facility employs hundreds of workers, including refugees from other countries who were resettled and live in Ingham County, which was one factor prompting an outreach campaign to provide “critical health information” to refugee communities in the county.
Greg Herbruck, the company’s president, said in a statement that the “vast majority of these positive cases originate from an isolated group of employees from our night shift bird crew.”
“Most were asymptomatic or showed very mild symptoms, if any,” Herbruck added. “None of the positive cases have sought medical treatment and have been recovering at home.”
Herbruck did not clarify how many employees have tested positive.
9 in Ionia County, 28 in Ingham County have tested positive for coronavirus
Ionia County Health Officer Ken Bowen said his department is still doing contact tracing, but so far there are nine COVID-19 cases in Ionia County connected with the poultry farm.
In Ingham County, 28 people connected with Herbruck’s has tested positive for the new coronavirus as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Amanda Darche, the county health department’s public information officer.
That’s about 6.5% of the total cases in Ingham County, which was reporting 429 confirmed cases of the virus as of Tuesday afternoon.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether anyone in Eaton or Clinton counties has tested positive in connection with the Herbruck’s outbreak. Officials also did not know the total number across all counties involved.
Herbruck’s chicken farm taking ‘aggressive steps’
There was discussion about shutting down the farm completely as the outbreak grew over the last two weeks, Vail said.
But Herbruck’s provides eggs to “half the country,” Bowen said, making a complete shutdown impossible.
The farm has taken “pretty aggressive steps,” he said, including widespread testing of workers and shutting down a portion of the ranch to prevent the virus from spreading further.
“They’ve been very cooperative,” Bowen said.
Related: Price drops, uncertainty, worry: How coronavirus is impacting Lansing-area farmers
That work site, which was shut down Friday, will remain closed “until further notice,” Herbruck said.
“We will continue to work closely with the health department to protect the health of our employees and prevent further spread of COVID-19,” his statement reads.
The farm has put strict biosecurity and sanitation protocols in place, provided personal protective equipment for employees, has employees working in pods to minimize risk and is limiting access by outside vendors, Herbruck said.
Despite efforts by the company and the health department, Bowen expects to see more cases associated with the Herbruck’s outbreak “simply because of how contagious the disease is.”
Ingham County focusing on outreach to refugees
Some portion of the cases are refugees who work at the farm, many of whom live in other counties, Vail said.
It’s fair to say the “largest portion of refugees who have tested positive are split between Kent and Ingham counties,” she said.
On Friday, partners from the Refugee Development Center and St. Vincent Catholic Charities began a phone campaign to contact all refugee residents in Ingham County and share critical health information, Vail said during her Tuesday briefing.
There are around 20,000 refugees speaking more than 94 languages who live in Ingham County, according to a presentation Vail gave.
So far, the phone campaign has reached 400 families, she said.
The campaign is focused on getting refugees critical health information while being mindful of cultural norms and beliefs, according to Vail’s presentation.
Contact reporter Megan Banta at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.
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