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COVID-19

Tracing COVID-19 cases to employers key to local contact tracing efforts

The Philadelphia Macaroni Company processing plant in Spokane was the site of a large COVID-19 outbreak in Spokane County. The plant closed after just one case was confirmed.  (Libby Kamrowski/The Spokesman-Review)

More than 1,000 Spokane County businesses have had at least one employee test positive for COVID-19 this summer .

Vikki Barthels, an environmental health specialist at the Spokane Regional Health District, said the health district’s business technical advisory team has reached out to 1,210 businesses, in nearly every industry, from May 27 through Friday, after finding out that an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

When health district staff reach out to a business, it does not necessarily mean that an employee got the virus at the workplace, however.

“If a (COVID-19) positive person has been interviewed by one of our case investigators, they will find out from the case where they work, their employer, those types of things, and then we’ll contact the business and work with them on that contact tracing,” Barthels said.

Health district staff assist businesses in determining who is considered a close contact of the employee who tested positive, whether they were infectious while at work and who else needs to be tested.

Barthels and other advisers ensure that businesses, from retail stores to restaurants to office spaces, have appropriate screening measures in place to ensure they are keeping infectious people out of congregate settings where they could infect others.

SRHD staff also work with businesses to see if they have a safety plan in place.

The governor’s office has issued specified reopening guidance for a handful of industries, but social distancing, wearing face coverings and frequent sanitizing protocols are generally supposed to be in place in businesses.

Restaurants, the agriculture industry, retail stores, grocery stores and manufacturing facilities are among the most common nonhealth care settings that have seen outbreaks around the state.

In Washington, there have been 88 outbreaks at restaurants, 83 in agriculture or food-packing settings, and 68 in grocery or retail stores.

Barthels said that break rooms or lunch rooms are likely locations for possible spread of the virus, especially since people take off face coverings to eat or drink.

Health officials are still recommending remote work and meetings if possible, and Barthels and her colleagues continue to work with businesses and workplaces that have outbreaks. Businesses are required to report an outbreak to the health district.

“Under the governor’s mandate, businesses are required to report to the health district if you have two or more employees test positive or you suspect an outbreak,” Barthels said on Monday.

The Spokane Regional Health District confirmed 34 additional cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and two more county residents died from the virus. Thus far, 127 Spokane County residents have died from COVID-19.

Thirty-four patients are being treated for COVID-19 in local hospitals, and 28 of them are county residents.

The Panhandle Health District confirmed 14 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and seven Panhandle residents are hospitalized with the virus.

The number of positive cases health officials are monitoring in the Panhandle continues to decline, with 333 active cases of COVID-19 now being monitored in the five-county region.

Arielle Dreher's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is primarily funded by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund, with additional support from Report for America and members of the Spokane community. These stories can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.