EAGLE GROVE — After five days of testing nearly 900 employees at Prestage Foods of Iowa, a total of 25 positive test results for the COVID-19 coronavirus were received, Wright County officials said on Thursday.

Over the weekend, 62 Prestage employees who commute from Black Hawk County were tested for the virus. After 16 positive results were received, Prestage, along with the Wright County Board of Supervisors and Board of Health requested 950 tests from the state to continue testing all employees at the facility.

The additional tests were completed over a three-day period starting on Monday. In total, 867 Prestage employees were tested for the coronavirus, with 842 testing negative and 25 testing positive. These numbers include the 62 employees tested over the weekend.

After this week’s testing, the 16 positive results from Black Hawk County commuters increased to 18. One employee from Wright County, one from Webster County, two from Humboldt County and three from Hamilton County also tested positive.

As a regional employer, Prestage has employees who commute from all over north central Iowa.

“This had the potential to be so much more of a negative effect to our region, if not for the proactiveness of Prestage,” said Karl Helgevold, Wright County supervisor and public information officer. “Their willingness to come forward with a concern that a small group of employees were commuting from Black Hawk County shows the character of this family-owned company.”

Deborah Johnson, communications director for Prestage Farms, said the facility is “resuming full operations with all previously implemented protocols in place.”

Over the past month, Prestage had instituted a series of measures aimed at limiting the risk of exposure and spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. These measures included closing buffet service in the facility cafeteria and preparing sack lunches instead, suspending company travel, weekly aerosol fogging of chlorine-based sanitizer of common areas and production areas, mandating the wearing of masks in production areas and taking temperatures of all employees daily.

On Monday, John Prestage, senior vice president of Prestage Farms Inc., said that employees who test positive for the coronavirus will not be eligible to return to work at Prestage Foods until after a quarantine period specified by health officials, but that the company will continue to pay those team members during that time.

“This situation was not the result of an outbreak, but the surveillance of potential COVID-19 activities in our area,” said Sandy McGrath, Wright County epidemiologist. “I am still very pleased that this is still not an outbreak.”

McGrath noted that the community needs to keep in mind that all of the individuals who were tested were asymptomatic, showing no signs of the illness.

“It is imperative to keep up good practices of social distancing, hand washing, wearing face coverings and follow IDPH guidelines,” she said.