The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has identified an outbreak of COVID-19 at nine industrial facilities in Vernon, including five meat packaging plants.

The biggest outbreak occurred at the Farmer John factory owned by Smithfield Foods – a loved Dodger Dog producer – where 153 of 1,837 employees tested positive for COVID-19 between March and May, the county said Sunday.

Eight other facilities with outbreaks are CLW Foods (meat), Vie De France Yamazaki (baked goods), Cal Farms Meat (meat), Takaokaya USA (green tea and other products), F. Gavina & Sons (coffee), Golden West Trading (meat), Overhill Agriculture (frozen food), and Rose and Shore (deli meat and fast food).

Less than 25 employees tested positive at each of these facilities. By A. County standards, an “outbreak” has occurred when five or more workers contract the virus.

Even though Vernon only has a few dozen residents and almost all of the industry, workers who have contracted the virus in the city south of Los Angeles can spread it in their own communities, the county warns.

“We are monitoring the outbreak in a facility in the city of Vernon, because many employees live in the nearby southeast Los Angeles community,” said Barbara Ferrer, county health director.

“Our public health experts ensure that employees with the virus, and their families, remain quarantined to minimize exposure to others,” said District Supervisor A. Hilda L. Solis.

In a statement, Smithfield Foods said its workers were “essential to our nation’s response to COVID-19.”

“We thank them for keeping food on the American table and for implementing aggressive measures to protect their health and safety during this pandemic,” the statement said.

Smithfield said the steps included a series of guidelines and strict protocols that followed or exceeded the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The company said it had increased supply of masks and face shields, installed Plexiglas barriers on the production floor and in the rest area and implemented a mass temperature scanning system to screen workers.

Employees were offered free testing for new corona viruses and paid quarantine time, and were told not to report to the office if they were sick, Smithfield said; The company has also relaxed its attendance policy, eliminated co-payment for corona virus-related treatments and extended leave benefits to employees who are medically considered at risk.

Of 153 Farmer John employees who tested positive, 41 have returned to work, according to district health officer A.

“During this pandemic, our entire industry is faced with an impossible choice: continue to operate to maintain our country’s food supply or cover in an effort to fully protect our employees from risks,” the company said in a statement issued in early May. “That’s a bad choice; that’s not what we want anyone. It is impossible to store protein on the table throughout America if our nation’s meat plants are not working. “

Plague at the Vernon Smithfield plant is the largest registered by the county Department of Public Health in non-residential settings.

The Coronavirus outbreak has infected meat packaging factories throughout the country since March, when most of the country was locked up. More than 10,000 cases of COVID-19 have been linked to U.S. meat packaging plants, and at least three dozen workers are known to have died in early May, according to an analysis by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica.