ONTARIO – Fry Foods shut down its Ontario plant late last week as rumors swirled that two employees were sick with COVID-19.

The food processing plant closed Thursday night and announced mandatory testing for employees Friday, according to Douglas Wold, Oregon/Idaho Fry Foods human resources manager.

The move came days after the company’s Weiser, Idaho, plant shut down following an outbreak of the infection.

Roughly 280 employees work at the plant in Ontario, which specializes in onion rings, cheese sticks and other appetizer items.

Wold said about 229 employees from the Ontario plant were tested at the site in Idaho. Remaining employees got tested on their own.

As of Monday, Wold had not gotten confirmation from any employee or the Malheur County Health Department of any confirmed positive cases linked to the Ontario plant but about a dozen negative test results had trickled in. Results were expected by Tuesday afternoon.