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Packing plants deal with coronavirus

Many local news outlets reported that the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota will close its doors for three days after learning that 190 of its employees are COVID-19 positive.

Six of those individuals have received medical care at some point, said Dakota News Now.

The news outlet reported that the plant employs about 3,700 employees. Health officials believe exposure to the virus could be more of a concern at home than at the plant.



“I think of particular importance are going to be our Hispanic and Nepali population,” Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said in a Dakota News Now story. “Those are two of the largest immigrant populations we have in the city, and they are being hit the hardest with the outbreak at Smithfiled. We are working at targeted communication strategies with those two populations specifically.”

South Dakota has experienced 536 cases of COVID-19 with 177 of those recovered.



A JBS facility in Pennsylvania closed its doors for 2 weeks in the wake of the crisis, and others across the country have experienced worker infections and a few have reported coronavirus deaths in low numbers.