COVID-19 Outbreak being investigated at Tyson Foods, Inc. in Madison, NE – KTIV

MADISON, Nebraska (KTIV)- On the evening of Thursday, April 16th, Elkhorn Logan Valley Public Health Department says they were made aware of two confirmed COVID-19 casesboth employees at Tyson in Madison, NE.

Officials say that at this time, there are a total of six confirmed cases stemming from employees of that Tyson plant.

An additional 30+ tests are pending at this time from Tyson employees or direct household contacts of Tyson employees.

On the prior evening of April 15th, ELVPHD says they were notified of the statewide initiative to increase COVID-19 testing in the area and were advised that a mass testing event was to be offered in the ELVPHD district for up to 100 patrons in coordination with DHHS, Nebraska Public Health Lab and military personnel.

After learning of the positive cases at Tyson in Madison, ELVPHD made the decision to designate the majority of the 100 tests for Tyson employees and/or household members of Tyson employees.

The department says that initially, support was achieved from both corporate and local Tyson leaders.

On Friday evening, April 17th, the department says they were notified in writing from Tyson Vice President in Arkansas that upon further reflection, Tyson was declining to provide names of any Tyson team membersas requested by their department.

Further, ELVPHD says, the notice stated that Tyson did not see that providing team member information to us was necessary, as they believed that the testing should be reserved for other groups stating that they had not identified the symptomatic Tyson team members who had not been tested.

ELVPHD says they made several recommendations to Tyson on Friday, April 17th, reiterating that utmost attention to stopping spread and exposures in the plant now could procure immense gain in outbreak control in the days and weeks ahead.

Tyson was asked to immediately begin the following:

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COVID-19 Outbreak being investigated at Tyson Foods, Inc. in Madison, NE - KTIV