NEARLY 900 workers at a meat plant in Indiana have tested positive for the coronavirus — days after President Donald Trump ordered such facilities to remain open.
Roughly 40 percent of the 2,200 workers at the Tyson Foods plant in Logansport were infected in the past week, local health officials said.
According to WISH-TV, Cass County authorities had been working with Tyson — one of the largest meat suppliers in the US — to reopen the plant after closing voluntarily for two weeks on April 25.
The plant will resume limited operations next week, the Indianapolis Star reported on Friday.
Serenity Alter, the Cass County Health Department administrator, previously said they’re expecting the number of positive cases to grow.
“We were in good shape for a couple weeks and then just within the couple weeks it kind of blew up,” Alter said.
Trump on Tuesday issued an executive order for meat processing plants across the country to stay open after growing concerns about the nation’s food supply.
The order uses the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to try to prevent a shortage of chicken, pork, and other meat on store shelves.
More than 20 meatpacking plants have closed temporarily after pressure from local authorities— including two of the nation’s largest, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota.
Unions quickly fired back at Trump’s order, which states that shuttering meat plants undermines “critical infrastructure during the national emergency.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said on Tuesday that 20 union workers who worked in food-processing and meatpacking have died.
The union, which represents 1.3 million food and retail workers, said an estimated 6,500 are sick or have been exposed to positive virus cases while on the job.
Tyson temporarily suspended operations at its pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa after infections hit the facility.
Earlier this month, Smithfield Foods also halted production in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after nearly 900 workers there were infected, too.
The 15 largest pork-packing plants account for 60 percent of all pork processed in the US— and the country has already seen a 25 percent reduction in pork slaughter capacity, according to the union.
Tyson said in a blog post on the company’s website this week: “Tyson Foods is facing a new set of challenges.”
“In small communities around the country where we employ over 100,000 hard-working men and women, we’re being forced to shutter our doors.”
It continued: “In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue.”
Farmers have also been left facing the tough reality that they may have to kill millions of animals that they are unable to sell as livestock.
Some farmers are even facing death threats due to the decisions they are having to make with their animals and produce.
Two Wisconsin dairy farmers, forced to dump milk by their buyers, told Reuters they recently received anonymous death threats.
“They say, ‘How dare you throw away food when so many people are hungry?’” said one farmer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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“They don’t know how farming works. This makes me sick, too.”
A White House official told The Associated Press that they’re working with the Labor Department to provide enhanced safety guidance for meatpacking workers.
As of Friday, more than 1,099,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in the US with 63,000 reported deaths.