The number of COVID-19 infections among out-of-state workers in Alaska rose again over the holiday weekend, with four more employees testing positive.
Two of the employees -- who were identified as working for a Kenai Peninsula Borough seafood processor -- were screened in Anchorage upon their arrival from out of the state. They then traveled by a bus along with 35 other seafood workers employed by the same company, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The employees were taken directly to company housing, where they tested positive for COVID-19 on May 24, DHHS said.
It's unclear if the employees tested positive upon arrival in Anchorage, or at the second screening.
All employees will remain in quarantine under state regulations, while the two infected employees have been placed in a separate building.
Several seafood companies operate on the Kenai Peninsula, including Cooke-owned Icicle Seafoods in Seward, Copper River Seafoods in Kenai, and Marubeni-owned Inlet Fish in Kenai.
On Tuesday, DHHS reported another two cases of employees working in the seafood industry on May 25. The agency did not announce what company the two workers were employed by.
The cases come days after a Peter Pan Seafoods worker in Valdez tested positive for the coronavirus. It was that city's first case.
In total, 10 cases of COVID-19 linked to the seafood industry have been reported in the state of Alaska, including a worker in Bristol Bay employed by Trident Seafoods, and an employee of Ocean Beauty Seafoods in Cordova.
IntraFish is tracking all reported infections in the seafood industry in our interactive chart here.
