Los Angeles Apparel Factory Closes After More Than 300 Coronavirus Cases and 4 Dead

County health officials said they had ordered a clothing maker in downtown Los Angeles, which had more than 300 employees confirmed to have been infected with a coronavirus, as a result of an investigation into the deaths of four workers.

Los Angeles apparel had three deaths in June and one death in July, which required an investigation, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement.

“The deaths of four dedicated clothing workers are disastrous and tragic,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer of the Los Angeles County Public Health Service. “Business owners and operators have a corporate, moral, and social responsibility to their employees and their families to provide a safe work environment.”

Los Angeles Apparel was founded in 2016 by Dov Charney, who previously founded American Apparel. It was first closed on June 27 after violating the county’s mandatory health order. The company was unable to cooperate with the Department of Health’s investigation of the reported outbreak of coronavirus, health officials said.

It said that on May 19 the medical institutions concerned had notified county health officials of a possible outbreak in a garment factory. The Department of Health said that despite multiple requests for a list of all employees, Los Angeles apparel couldn’t provide it and reported 151 cases that week.

This list was the “important tool” needed by the Department of Health to compare it with test results and determine the extent of outbreaks. “This allows DPH to track employees against a list of confirmed positive or negative Covid-19 individuals’ DPH received from the test lab,” said the Department of Health.

When inspectors visited the factory on June 26, they observed multiple violations of physical distance requirements and infection control protocols, including the use of corrugated board as a barrier between workers, the Department of Health said. It was

Los Angeles apparel has been given detailed instructions on the steps they must take to reopen.

On July 4, the health department received an incomplete list of all employees of the company, reporting 198 positive results. The health department then used that list and compared it to laboratory results, and determined that there were more than 300 positive cases on the site as of July 10.

The county public health department sent a letter to the company, saying only those employees who were positive before June 26 could return to work if they had no symptoms, but Los Angeles apparel resumed with new employees. And violated the order of the health official.

“At the moment, Los Angeles apparel has been ordered to close the facility until we can show that the facility is in full compliance with public health obligations,” said the Department of Health.

In a telephone interview with CNN on Friday night, Charney vehemently disagreed with the Health Department’s allegations, with officials acting “in dishonesty” and “looking for a scapegoat,” shutting down the factory. He suggested that the decision was “political.”

According to Charney, garment makers installed corrugated cardboard barriers between workers to reduce the spread of the virus, but the company said it wasn’t informed that the material did not comply with medical order. did. Instead, he accused the health authorities of his explanation that the employer did not have clear instructions to keep workers safe, calling it “bad practice on their part.”

The Department of Health ordered Los Angeles apparel to allow only workers who had recovered positive with a positive reaction to return to the factory, but Charney said he hired new workers when the company resumed. Said.

“Of course we hired new employees,” Charney said. “Which company can’t hire a new employee? Nobody says not hiring a new employee.”

Charney read aloud the letter to CNN he received from the County Department of Health, saying only previously positive and asymptomatic employees could return to the factory.

Charney also disputed the allegations that the company attempted to prevent the company from entering the factory for inspection and was only asked to wait until a company lawyer arrived on the scene.

“I never said they couldn’t get in,” Charney said. “We never let them in.”

Mr Charney knew that many of the company’s employees were infected with the virus and died, but suggested that the employees could have been infected elsewhere.

“A gentleman who worked with me for 15 or 20 years” recently died of a complication of Covid-19. “We are all weeping, but I don’t know how he got it. His wife got it too. And if he got it here, That’s horrible, of course, but I don’t think anyone has succeeded here.”

Charney blamed the county for lack of testing and contact tracking, but said the company will work with authorities to reopen the factory.

“Did I do something different? Of course, given the year 2020, I have some new ideas,” he said. “I was arranging the tests from the beginning every week. I fought to test faster.”