La-Z-Boy confirms employee at Dayton plant has COVID-19

Staff photo by Tim Barber/ The new La-Z-Boy Innovation Center is a 70,000 square-foot research and development facility on the Dayton campus on Manufacturer's Road.
Staff photo by Tim Barber/ The new La-Z-Boy Innovation Center is a 70,000 square-foot research and development facility on the Dayton campus on Manufacturer's Road.

A case of COVID-19 has been confirmed at La-Z-Boy's large Dayton, Tennessee, manufacturing plant.

The furniture company has a health surveillance process in place, including daily temperature checks upon arrival at the Dayton plant along with a set of health-related questions asked of each employee, said Kathy Liebmann of La-Z-Boy. The individual arrived at work and indicated through the questions that the employee was not feel well, Liebmann said.

"This person was sent home to self-quarantine. We provided information to the individual to self-monitor and be tested," she said. Liebmann said that the COVID-19 testing to which employees are referred is readily available and provided at no cost.

The company conferred with the Rhea County Infectious Disease Commission, which believes the initial exposure occurred outside of the workplace, Liebmann said.

"We then set about contact tracing, using CDC guidelines, and identified individuals who had been in contact with the infected individual. The individuals identified through contact tracing are not working at the plant for a period of 14 days and are isolating and self-monitoring," she said. "We have also recommended they be tested and provided information to them regarding how to obtain the test."

La-Z-Boy earlier closed the Dayton plant due to the national COVID-19 outbreak and then reopened on April 27 with 540 employees. Earlier this week, that number had been boosted to 715 workers, according to the company.

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