An outbreak of the novel coronavirus on a farm in Tennessee that triggered a 14-fold jump in confirmed cases in Rhea County last week is said by company officials to be contained to the migrant workers at the facility who tested positive.
"We're very concerned," said Rhea County Executive George Thacker, who added that he anticipates an unknown number of new cases soon that may or may not be related to the farm.
Thacker said that while he knew of no link between the expected new cases and the current confirmed cases at the farm, there's much more still to learn about the county's coronavirus situation. The increase did not materialize in the state's updated figures Wednesday afternoon.
"We are aware of a cluster in Rhea County and it is related to a farm," state epidemiologist Dr. John Dunn told the Times Free Press. He added that his office is working closely with the Rhea County's regional health department and managers at the farm.
"Some of our outbreaks we've seen across the state related to processing facilities, any time you have a large aggregation of people, it increases the risk of transmission," Dunn said. "So we're very aware and working with our local partners on isolation and quarantine as appropriately as we would any other type of outbreak."
(TIMES FREE PRESS CORONAVIRUS TRACKER)
Tennessee Department of Health spokesman Bill Christian said Wednesday that the state agency had no figures specifically on the farm and referred any other questions to the company.
"After a worker tested positive for COVID-19 and out of an abundance of caution, we requested that the Rhea County Health Department test all employees at Henderson Farms in Evensville, TN," a company spokesperson told the Herald-News in Dayton, the county seat. "When the results came back, we learned our workers at this location tested positive for COVID-19. At this stage, we feel blessed that our workers are asymptomatic and the situation remains contained.
"Yet as a precautionary measure and in line with the latest public health guidelines, these workers continue to remain in isolation at the farm where they live and work. Nothing is more important to us than the health of our workers and community at large. We take this very seriously and are monitoring the situation closely in partnership with Rhea County Health Department, taking all precautionary measures to continue to protect our workers and our community," the statement reads.
When the Times Free Press contacted Norman Park, Georgia-based Southern Valley's executive officer Jon Schwalls on Wednesday he declined any further statement.
Southern Valley was founded in 1987 and has an operation in Yucatan, Mexico, in addition to its two U.S. operations, according to the company website.
Information on the outbreak at the farm in Evensville has barely trickled out since Thacker's video statement posted on social media the night of May 20. Thacker had issued the statement in anticipation of COVID-19 cases jumping from a dozen to 188 on the Tennessee Health Department's report May 21.
Thacker raised the alarm to caution Rhea County residents about social distancing and using masks with the three-day Memorial Day weekend looming.
Since then, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 197, with 1,271 negative test results and 12 people recovered. No one in Rhea County has died of the virus, according to state reports.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tennessee increased to 21,306 on Wednesday, up 341 from Tuesday's total of 20,965, according to the state's daily virus update. There have been 353 deaths from the virus statewide.
In Tennessee, Bledsoe County has reported 608 cases and 1 death; Bradley County 105 cases and 1 death; Coffee County 66 cases and 0 deaths; Franklin County 49 cases and 1 death; Grundy County 32 cases and 1 death; Marion County 37 cases and 1 death; McMinn County 136 cases and 14 deaths; Meigs County 25 cases and 0 deaths; Polk County 15 cases and 0 deaths; and Rhea County remained 197 cases and 0 deaths.
The new tally shows Bradley County cases rose by 6 while Franklin, McMinn and Polk counties each rose by one case. No additional deaths were reported in the Chattanooga region's rural counties, state records show.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.