Worker at Blue Diamond’s large Sacramento campus has coronavirus, almond grower says
A worker at the Blue Diamond Growers facility in downtown Sacramento has tested positive for the coronavirus, the company said Tuesday.
Blue Diamond in an emailed statement says it was informed Monday “that an employee at its Sacramento facility has tested positive for COVID-19.” The facility will remain open, the company said.
“Co-workers who may have been in close proximity or contact with the employee were informed of the diagnosis, sent home and asked to self-quarantine and monitor for symptoms,” the news release said. “As a precaution, the employee’s confined workspace and potentially affected common areas were thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.”
The role of that employee, who is also self-isolating, was not specified. The almond grower and distributor has its headquarters, a processing center and other facilities at its large Sacramento campus.
The facilities have remained open during the coronavirus pandemic, as food is an essential industry and thus exempt from both Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide and Sacramento County’s stay-at-home orders issued last week.
“Our dedicated team members literally have been working around the clock to meet increased customer demand for shelf-stable almond products to help feed families impacted by this pandemic,” said Mark Jansen, president and CEO of Blue Diamond, in a prepared statement.
“We will continue to follow CDC and FDA guidelines to protect our hard-working employees while minimizing risk to the manufacturing operations necessary as an essential food supplier.”
As of Monday, public health officials said there were 88 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths from the disease within Sacramento County.
Blue Diamond employs more than 1,300 people statewide, according to its website, and is Sacramento’s biggest food producer.
Earlier in March, company senior vice president Bill Morecraft told The Bee that Blue Diamond had not yet seen any significant impacts to its supply chain operations due to the coronavirus.
In an “almond market update” statement put out on the Blue Diamond website one day after The Bee’s story published on March 12, Morecraft wrote that “coronavirus has resulted in a significant challenge to shipping logistics as ports have closed, and available containers and space on vessels been interrupted,” but that “larger agricultural shippers out of California,” which would include Blue Diamond, “appear to be experiencing less disruption as they leverage strong partnerships with shipping lines.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 10:36 AM.
