January 8, 2021 — UniSea is under partial lockdown and has shut down all non-essential work after four employees of the processing plant tested positive for COVID-19 Tuesday.
Four “non-quarantined” individuals complained of not feeling well and were taken to the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic where they tested positive, according to UniSea President and CEO Tom Enlow.
“This raised our risk level to ‘high’ and we sent everyone to their housing quarters and basically shut down non-essential work,” he told KUCB in a statement Wednesday. “We have restricted movement outside of our campus to only essential travel, such as to the clinic or for supplies.”
The processing plant worked with clinic staff on contact tracing, and identified roughly 50 close contacts who are being tested at the clinic Wednesday, according to Enlow. He said they are working to determine if the virus was contained to a “small group” that gathered to celebrate the New Year or whether the positive cases are indicative of more widespread community transmission. All four of the people who later tested positive attended the New Year gathering.