BEAVER CO., Pa. — Five more workers at Shell Chemical’s new ethane cracker plant in Beaver County have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a company spokesperson.
That brings the total number of positive tests among employees there to 18 since the pandemic began -- 12 since late last month.
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Shell built a COVID-19 testing lab to provide results within hours for workers at the construction site who show symptoms of the coronavirus, and officials said Thursday that the company will start adding more workers next week to the nearly 3,700 who are on the job now.
Shell had as few as 300 workers in late March and April while most of the work stopped, but the company steadily increased that number over the last two months by about 300 employees a week with strict social distancing, masking, cleaning and other mitigation measures.
"Having successfully implemented the new testing lab, site leaders are now comfortable with resuming reintroduction of workers during the week of July 20 at the same measured rate we added workers in May and June," said spokesman Michael Marr. "We will continue to add workers only if we are satisfied that we have the protocols, tools and behaviors in place to do so safely."
Workers would not go on camera in fear for their jobs. But they did tell Channel 11 everything sounds good on paper, but the conditions inside the plant remain very unsafe with employees continuing to work with symptoms. One worker said they wish they could quit but he needs a job and wouldn’t qualify for unemployment.
There are about 3,700 employees on the site as of now. There had been more than 8,000 before the pandemic.
You can read the company’s full statement below:
“Since the end of last week, five of the site’s workforce tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of positive tests to 18 since the pandemic began. To protect the privacy of the workers, no other details will be made available.
WORKFORCE UPDATE
The number of workers on site at Shell’s Pennsylvania Chemicals project remains at approximately 3,700. This number includes approximately 500 workers on the night shift and approximately 100 workers at an offsite warehouse. We paused the expansion of the workforce on June 30.
SITE SAFETY
We continue to follow and enforce COVID-19 guidelines as provided by the Center for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Those include social distancing, mandatory masks, sanitizing stations, temperature screening, and lunchroom protocols that use tables with plexiglass dividers with only two workers per table.
We may adapt our practices as conditions and corresponding guidelines change.
NEW TESTING LAB ONSITE
During the past week, site safety leaders have successfully completed permitting of a COVID-19 testing lab within site limits to allow for ready testing to be done on workers who may show symptoms or may have had close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case. Workers will be tested, sent home and then receive test results in approximately four hours. This new testing lab provides the site leaders with a valuable tool that will help the site to protect worker safety and manage COVID-19 challenges. Further, all new workers joining the site will undergo testing.
PLANS FOR WEEK OF JULY 20
Having successfully implemented the new testing lab, site leaders are now comfortable with resuming reintroduction of workers during the week of July 20 at the same measured rate we added workers in May and June. We will continue to add workers only if we are satisfied that we have the protocols, tools and behaviors in place to do so safely.”
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