(Beaver Dam) The Wisconsin National Guard will assist in testing all employees at Richelieu Foods in Beaver Dam. The manufacturer of pizzas, dressings and sauces made that announcement Wednesday saying it will test all employees at its Beaver Dam facility for COVID-19 after confirming eight cases at the facility since last week. Richelieu, which employs 420 workers in Beaver Dam, will be closed the remainder of the week for employee testing.
Richelieu Chief Executive Officer Ric Alvarez says the “health and safety of…employees, their families, and…customers has always been our top priority,” and they “believe that testing supported by the Wisconsin National Guard is an important next step to quickly identify any unknown cases, treat those employees, and isolate them to prevent further spread.”
Alvarez says they have taken other precautions to provide a safe workplace environment, including additional cleaning and sanitation, encouraging social distancing, requiring handwashing before entering the plant floor and consistent communication with employees.
During the shutdown, all employees will be paid for 40 hours for the workweek and additional cleaning and sanitation by an external vendor will be completed.
Dodge County Public Health Officer Abby Sauer says “large-scale testing is a key public health strategy to identify disease outbreaks and act quickly to use other public health strategies [like for example, contact tracing and isolation and quarantine] to contain infectious diseases.
