BUFFALO, N.Y. — When the Governor addressed the Western New York region's percent-positive rate Monday, he mentioned several COVID-19 clusters that are contributing to it being the highest in the state.
2 On Your Side is trying to get answers for you about where those people are who got sick.
Monday, the Governor raised a caution flag for our region, and he mentioned there have been several COVID-19 clusters in Western New York. He specifically mentioned a steel plant in Erie County, a food processing factory in Chautauqua County, two nursing homes, and people coming in for hospital procedures, and seasonal labor forces at farms as sources of the clusters.
In Chautauqua County, which is part of the five-county Western New York region being tracked for COVID cases, the Health Director announced Monday that the food processing plant the Governor mentioned is Fieldbrook Foods in Dunkirk.
The obvious place to go for new information is Erie County.
The county has not told us which steel plant the Governor is talking about, so we filed a Freedom of Information request to try to get that information for you. We also filed one last week to try to find out more about the COVID cluster in Eden.
Tuesday, that request revealed that there were 462 emails sent by the County Executive and two staff members that mentioned either the word COVID or Eden for the period we requested information for in August.
We also got a news tip about a local steel plant. So, we wanted to find out if there was any truth to that.
2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik called the P&G Steel Products Co. on Tuesday and was transferred to a man who told her that he had to check with someone before talking with her.
After the story aired at 6 p.m. P&G Steel confirmed that an employee has tested positive and is now requiring all employees to be tested.
The plant released the following statement:
P&G Steel Products Co., Inc. has been deemed an essential business since March 2020 and has been operating since that time throughout the pandemic pursuant to the New York State guidelines. As a testament to the diligence of our employees and the policies in place, we have not had an employee test positive until last week. Upon learning of the possibility of a first positive COVID-19 test result, we immediately shut down our facility, conducted comprehensive cleaning, and required that all employees be tested.
We also immediately contacted the Erie County Health Department and have been in constant communication with their office. We are requiring that each employee have a negative test, be symptom free and comply with all required state and county guidelines before returning to work. we continue to implement and enforce all of the necessary precautions, procedures, and recommendations to help promote the safety of our employees, vendors, customers and our community.
If we get more information about any of these clusters, we will bring it to you both on-air and online.