May 7, 2020 7:50p
(WGTD)---A Racine factory temporarily closed Thursday because of COVID-19, and there are signs of trouble at several other workplaces, as talk turns to finding ways to re-open the state’s economy.
The InSinkErator plant on 21st St. in Racine is closed for cleaning after two of the plant’s 650 employees tested positive for the virus. According to a report in the Journal Times, the factory is expected to re-open next week.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin National Guard says it tested more than 160 workers at a food processing facility in Burlington on Monday. Testing began Tuesday at a Kenosha meat packing plant.
On Thursday, Guard teams were at a medical facility in Sturtevant and at a food-processing facility in Darien in Walworth County.
Last week, employees of a meat packaging plant in Pleasant Prairie were tested, and the week before, several hundred Kenosha County jail inmates and staff received a test.
The Guard did not identify the work places other than the detention facilities. Local health departments generally don’t identify employers either.
What data that has been released shows that the number of new cases in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties continue to rise. Kenosha is up 24 from the day before, Racine, 43 and Walworth 2. No new deaths have been reported in the tri-county area.
Statewide, the number of new cases as a percent of the total number of tests has fallen four days in a row. But deaths are up by 14, and current hospitalizations statewide are up by 36 after having fallen the day before by over two dozen.
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