March 22, 2025
Local News

Oregon store reopens after COVID-19 outbreak

Grocery store was ordered to close on July 8

By Jeff Helfrich
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Peggy Oelke of Oregon was happy to shop for groceries again at the Oregon SuperValu on Wednesday morning. The locally-owned store reopened seven days after being closed July 8 because some employees tested positive for COVID-19. "I really missed them," said Oelke. Pictured in back is employee Olga Becker who was stationed at the entrance doors to make sure customers were wearing masks before entering. Story on page 4. (Earleen Hinton)

The Oregon SuperValu grocery store reopened Wednesday after a COVID-19 outbreak prompted its closure by the Ogle County Health Department on July 8.

OCHD Public Administrator Auman said Monday that the health department has half of the testing results back and made recommendations on cleaning and formulated a plan to send employees back to work.

Reopening was up to owners Jim and Kim Kaufman of Oregon. They announced their plans to reopen on Tuesday evening on Facebook. The hours Wednesday are 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., less than usual due to a shortage of employees.

“Only employees who have negative test results with all of the members of their households also testing negative are allowed to return to work, which means we will only have a partial staff for a few more days,” the Facebook post said.

As more employees are released to come back to work, open hours will be increased. The post, written by Kim Kaufman, also said a lot of products had to be thrown away for various reasons.

“If you see out of stocks on certain items, know that we will be working hard to order those products and get them back on the shelf ASAP,” Kaufman wrote. “We expect our shelves to be back to what you usually expect at SuperValu by next week.”

Masks will be required at the store. An employee will be stationed at the door to remind all shoppers of this OCHD-mandated regulation.

The OCHD found out about the COVID-19 cases at SuperValu through its contact tracing process, Auman said.

On July 5, the OCHD learned of two cases at SuperValu. It later found out about additional linked cases and mandated the closure after initially planning to just recommend a closure, Auman said.

SuperValu is the second business closed by the health department due a COVID-19 outbreak.

Rochelle Foods, a food processing plant employing about 900, was the first to be closed in April. It was shutdown for two weeks before reopening.

“This isn’t even comparable to Rochelle Foods,” Auman said. “It’s easy to get people tested fast and most were easy to work with.”

Auman said those two businesses aren’t the only Ogle County businesses that have had employees test positive, just the only ones that had to be mandated to close. He has heard rumors of recent temporary partial closings at Woods Equipment and E.D. Etnyre and Co. in Oregon due to COVID-19, but said nothing was mandated or recommended by the OCHD.

“It depends on so many different factors,” Auman said. “People are moving all over the store at SuperValu. At those other places, they may be confined to one machine. It’s a whole host of things. And the amount of risk a business poses to the county. A store is a large risk.”

Auman said the health department gets hundreds of COVID-19-related complaints a day.

The OCHD has 13 normal staff members with 3-4 people handling those complaints a day.

He said the health department has communicated with several local businesses as well as corporate headquarters.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Auman said. “Facebook, email and phone calls. We try to prioritize the ones with the highest risk. We try to follow up on every one. It’s been overwhelming. Our phones ring off the hook.”