(Potter Twp., Pa) Five more workers at Shell Cracker plant in Potter Twp. tested positive for COVID-19, according to a company release.

In the statement Shell Chemicals says that: “Since the end of last week, five of the site’s workforce tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of positive tests to 18 since the pandemic began. To protect the privacy of the workers, no other details will be made available.”

Since the Pandemic began Shell Chemicals built a COVID-19 testing lab to provide results within hours for workers at the construction site who show symptoms of the coronavirus.

The Company plans to start adding more workers next week.

At one point during the pandemic, at the urging of Local Politicians, Shell stopped construction of the new ethane cracker plant and had as few as 300 workers on site to maintain the facility. As restrictions were eased by the state the company steadily increased the number of employees, adding about 300 employees a week with strict social distancing, masking, cleaning, and other mitigation measures.

There are about 3,700 employees on the site as of now. There had been more than 8,000 before the pandemic.