Credit Nat Herz/Alaska Public Media
One of North America s largest fish processing plants is shutting down as a COVID-19 outbreak grows and owner Trident Seafoods struggles to test its 700-person workforce.
The plant, on the isolated island of Akutan, is the second in the Aleutians to shut down this year, just as the billion-dollar Bering Sea pollock fishery was set to kick off.
Now, fishermen and industry leaders are anxious that they might not have places to offload their catch, and that their plants might be the next to close down, said Dan Martin, who manages a fleet of nine pollock trawlers for a company called Evening Star Fisheries.
Unalaska has received its second shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine, and clinic staff have already started giving out shots. The 300 doses from drug company
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Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.-based UniSea has partially locked down its seafood processing facility in Unalaska, Alaska, after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The company, which is owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), is in the process of testing most of the staff at the facility and conducting contract tracing to determine the full scale of the outbreak, according to KUCB.
UniSea President and CEO Tom Enlow said some of the employees who tested positive attended a small gathering to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Some of the cases may also be a result of wider transmission of COVID-19 in the community of Unalaska, Enlow said.
KUCB.
Four non-quarantined individuals complained of not feeling well and were taken to the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic where they tested positive, UniSea President and CEO Tom Enlow told the news site.
Enlow told
IntraFish Friday UniSea is still under partial lockdown as we continue to contact trace and test per protocol. We will have an update for the media and issue a statement in the next day or two as we have more information, he said.
As of Thursday, the City of Unalaska reported its local risk factor for COVID is high. On Wednesday, the city reported there were 13 new positive tests for COVID-19, with an additional three identified on Thursday.