5 more workers test positive for covid-19 at Beaver County ethane cracker site

Five more workers have tested positive for covid-19 at Shell Chemicals’ ethane cracker construction site in Beaver County, a company spokesman said in a statement.

That brings the total number of positive tests to 18 since the pandemic began, Shell spokesman Michael Marr said in an update.

A covid-19 testing lab has been built at the site so workers who may show symptoms or had close contact with a confirmed coronavirus case can be tested. Workers who are tested will be sent home and get results in about 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,” Marr said. “Further, all new workers joining the site will undergo testing.”

About 3,700 people are now working at the site, including about 500 on the night shift and about 100 at an off-site warehouse, Marr said. The expansion of the workforce had been paused on June 30.

About 8,500 people worked at the site during the height of construction. That number at one time had been reduced to fewer than 300.

With the lab, Marr said site leaders will resume bringing back workers at a “measured rate” during the week of July 20.

“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,” he said.

Marr said the company is following covid-19 guidelines from the federal Center for Disease Control and the state Department of Health, including social distancing, mandatory masks, sanitizing stations, temperature screening and plexiglass dividers at lunch tables with only two workers per table.