Lincoln Premium Poultry on April 13 announced its first case of COVID-19, involving a worker at its poultry plant in Fremont, Nebraska.
“The employee worked in what we refer to as the ‘second processing’ part of the building and was on second shift, which runs in the evening and has fewer employees at this time. The person did not engage with many employees the last day they were in our facility, which was last Wednesday, April 8. We have arranged a deep clean of all areas of our facility and work will continue as scheduled.” said Jessica Kolterman, Lincoln Premium Poultry’s director of corporate and external affairs.
Lincoln Premium Poultry had previously limited visitors to the facility, implemented additional cleaning measures, changed cafeteria procedures, is taking the temperature of all entering its facilities and has provided masks to members of its workforce.
The company is following protocols of 3 Rivers Health Department to protect employees and the public.
“Our thoughts are with our employee as they go through this, and we wish them a speedy recovery. They are self-isolating at home with pay. The two team members who were potentially exposed are also self-isolating at home with pay. We are very proud of our employees who are working on the front lines of this virus each day to keep food on the table for American families and will continue to do everything we can to protect them.” said Kolterman.
Lincoln Premium Poultry was founded in 2016 and began operations on September 9, 2019. The company, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, is expected to process more than 2 million birds after about 45 weeks of operation. It is owned in part by Costco Wholesale Corp., and will provide about 40% of costco’s fresh chicken meat.
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