Fifty-two employees at a turkey processing plant in West Liberty have tested positively for COVID-19, plant owner West Liberty Foods tweeted Friday.

Two employees were hospitalized with the illness, West Liberty Foods Vice President and General Counsel Dan Waters told the Des Moines Register. Both have recovered enough to return home. One, who was diagnosed on April 5, has returned to work.

Waters said plant managers are mapping the spread of COVID-19 within the facility, but that contagions seem to be coming from other sources.

"When we do detect a case within the plant, we deep-clean that spot immediately, shut down the line and clean it," Waters said. "I think that a lot of the cases are coming in from outside the plant. We just can't control what happens there."

The virus could be traveling between meatpacking plants as well, Waters suggested: one employee who contracted the virus is married to an employee at a Tyson meat processing plant in Columbus Junction. The town in nearby Louisa County is the site of one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the nation, and many of the cases have been among plant workers.

The West Liberty plant has taken measures to stem further infections. In a Thursday letter posted to Twitter, West Liberty Complex Manager Tom Alberti wrote that the plant was taking precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, including taking employees' temperatures, providing face masks and staggering start times and breaks. The facility also has slowed production and increased space between workers on production lines.

The plant will close over the weekend for deep cleaning, as it did several times earlier this month. But cases of the virus continue to grow.

"The new cases happened despite those deep cleanings of the plant," Waters said.

He said West Liberty Foods does not plan to halt production at the facility.

"As long as we have the number of employees we need to operate, I think we plan to stay open and follow all the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines in terms of preventing or at least slowing the spread of the infection."

Katie Akin is a retail reporter for the Register. Reach her at kakin@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8041. Follow her on Twitter at @katie_akin.

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