Area nurses help with testing at Triumph Foods

Results from comprehensive testing for COVID-19 of employees and contact workers of Triumph Foods in St. Joseph have been completed, and Daviess County Health Department (DCHD) nurses were among those assisting. Kristie Smith, RN, and Racail King, RN, aided Buchanan County Health Department with notifying the cases and contact tracing.
Triumph has about 2,800 employees at the meatpacking plant.
On April 27, comprehensive testing of asymptomatic employees began in the parking lot of the plant. As of May 3, 373 employees and contract workers of Triumph Foods, who presented for testing sample collection with no related symptoms, had received positive results for COVID-19.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) partnered with the City of St. Joseph Health Department, Northwest Health Services, and Mosaic Life Care to offer COVID-19 testing to all employees and contract staff at Triumph Foods. Staff from surrounding local public health agencies assisted.
The two DCHD nurses helped at Triumph Foods on April 29 and were called back to help with contact tracing of those determined to be close contacts of the positive cases on May 4.
The Daviess County nurses worked with other health departments in Region H (Nodaway, Tri-County, Harrison, Grundy) who also sent one to three nurses.
“Our team was able to complete calls and tracings on 60 people,” said Cheryl Alexander, administrator at the Daviess County Health Department. “That may not sound like a lot, but this all takes time and paperwork.”
Any employees of the meat processing plant still seeking testing could do so through the mobile testing site operated by Northwest Health Services.