As testing continues at the Cooke-Ocean Beauty joint venture OBI Seafoods salmon processing plant in the Kenai Peninsula town of Seward, the number of workers who have tested positive has increased significantly.

The positive case count jumped from 98 workers as of last week, and is now up to 143 workers, Brenda Ballou, a public information officer for the city of Seward, confirmed with IntraFish.

As a result of an aggressive re-testing regimen, on Monday OBI Seafoods identified 45 additional positive cases over the past weekend.

The company transported 43 of those individuals to Anchorage over the weekend, while two local employees remained in Seward for isolation and treatment under company provided medical care, according to the city.

The plant has 262 workers total, who are a mix of residents and nonresidents in a city whose year-round population numbers just over 2,700. As of Monday, OBI added a medical provider in Seward to monitor the total of 11 local positive cases that remain in the community, in addition to the on-site EMT who is monitoring the close contacts in company housing.

OBI has also expanded its testing program to include the household members of employees who are Seward residents.

The plant has been operating as a closed campus and all employees who reside in company housing must remain on company property at all times, according to the city.

Processing

More than half of workers at Cooke's OBI Seafoods plant test positive for coronavirus