WALLULA, Wash. — Some 144 workers at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant near the Tri-Cities have tested positive for COVID-19 in testing done at the plant in recent days, and a second worker there may have died.

With 1,236 test results released by Saturday, the percentage of positive results was just under 12%.

That means nearly one in eight workers at the plant were infected with the new coronavirus as testing started April 24.

The Benton Franklin Health District on Saturday reported two deaths in county residents associated with food processing plants, with the Tyson plant the only one nearby with a known outbreak.

No further information was available on the weekend.

A 60-year-old Pasco butcher, who worked at the plant, died April 20.

Tyson closed the plant when testing began and a decision on when it will reopen has not been announced.

Results for just 22 workers are pending after the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health required all people working at the beef processing plant in Wallula to be tested.

Tyson workers were falling ill through April, with 104 COVID-19 cases linked to the outbreak in residents of four counties — Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Umatilla — just before testing of workers at the plant began.

More cases were reported before results started to come back from testing at the plant.

Walla Walla County officials released the results of 636 tests on Saturday, with just 28 positive cases among those results. That compared with 116 positive cases in the first 600 test results released Thursday and Friday.

Walla Walla County officials on Saturday did not release information on where workers with positive tests lived, other than 15 workers who lived in Walla Walla County.

However, the majority of workers at the Tyson beef slaughter and packing plant at Wallula south of Pasco live in the Tri-Cities area.

The Benton Franklin Health District has said 147 residents of the two counties have had COVID-19 linked to the outbreak at the Wallula beef plant, with most of those cases reported before testing results at the plant were received.

The health district said Saturday that it was continuing to verify which of the positive cases from the testing are from Tri-Cities.

As workers were tested at the plant they were sent home to self-isolate until they received results of their tests.

Employees who tested negative are eligible to return to work when the plant reopens. Those testing positive must be symptom-free for seven days before going back to work.