CLAYCOMO, Mo. — We’re still waiting for an update from Ford after the company said Tuesday that an employee at the Kansas City Assembly Plant tested positive for the coronavirus.
The company said it paused production for about an hour to do a deep clean on the transit side, where the infected employee worked.
Then employees went back to work.
FOX4 reached out to Ford on Wednesday for more information. A spokesperson sent us the same statement they put out Tuesday.
We received several messages and calls from employees and people with loved ones who work at the plant. They said they’re concerned about safety, especially since the area where the infected person worked was only shut down for one hour.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests businesses or facilities that experience a positive case of COVID-19 wait 24 hours before even cleaning or disinfecting. That’s according to the CDC‘s website, which was last updated April 14, 2020.
As of Wednesday night, there has been no word from the union in charge of protecting these workers either. FOX4 tried to contact them multiple times, leaving several messages, but has not heard back.
United Auto Workers Local 249 did, however, respond to the incident Tuesday in a Facebook post. It stated that the original 24-hour guidance for cleaning after a positive case is no longer in place.
FOX4 also asked Ford, “How many workers have tested positive for COVID-19?”
Their spokeswoman did not answer the question, instead supplying this statement:
The safety of our workforce is our top priority. Working closely with the UAW and external experts in infectious disease and epidemiology, we have developed safety standards to protect our workforce. We follow those protocols at all Ford facilities globally.
