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9 hours ago - More than 700 employees at a Tyson Foods meat factory in Perry, Iowa, have tested positive for the coronavirus as the nation fears a ...
Tyson Foods has shifted some of their chicken, beef and pork production from foodservice to meet the surge in demand for retail food products during the coronavirus outbreak. The company has a beef plant in Wallula, which is south of Pasco.
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CORONAVIRUS
Tyson meat plant in Iowa reports more than 700 employees — or 58% — have coronavirus
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More than half the workers at a Tyson Foods plant in Perry, Iowa have tested positive for the coronavirus, Iowa Department of Public Health officials said Tuesday.
Outbreaks of the fast-spreading virus have hampered production at four Iowa meat packing plants, including the one in Perry where 730 workers — or 58% of the workforce — tested positive for COVID-19, Des Moines station WHO-DT reported. The news comes just weeks after a similar outbreak forced the closure of Tyson’s largest pork plant in Waterloo, according to the station.
Tyson plants in Pasco, Washington and Dakota City, Nebraska were also forced to close temporarily, with the Pasco facility reopening Tuesday after being shuttered for two weeks, Tyson Foods announced in a press release.
“We have and expect to continue to face slowdowns and temporary idling of production facilities from team member shortages or choices we make to ensure operational safety,” the company said in a statement provided to NBC News.
Each of Tyson’s Iowa facilities had a confirmed outbreak, “meaning 10% or more of the workforce in a single location is sick,” with the coronavirus, WHO-DT reported, citing data released by IDPH officials. At Tyson’s Waterloo plant, nearly 20% of workers tested positive.
That number was even higher at the Iowa Premium Beef in Tama, which saw 221 coronavirus cases, or 39% of the facility’s workforce, according to WHO-DT.
The Tyson plants in Columbus Junction and TPI Composites in Newton also saw outbreaks, IDPH Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter said at a news conference covered by The Perry Chief.
In a statement, the meat company said the “health and safety of our team members is our top priority.” A spokeswoman for Tyson added that a mass testing of Perry plant employees was conducted April 25, and that the plant has taken additional steps to deep clean and sanitize the workplace, The Perry Chief reported.
“We take this responsibility extremely seriously,” the statement continued, according to the newspaper. “We are conducting testing of team members and will not hesitate to idle any plant for additional deep cleaning and sanitization. All team members returning to work at our facilities have been tested, and any employee who has tested positive will remain on sick leave until they are released by health officials to return to work.”
The coronavirus crisis, which has infected more than 1.2 million people across the country, has stoked growing fears of a meat shortage, with Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson warning in a full-page ad ran in several newspapers last month that there could soon be a break in the food supply chain, McClatchy News previously reported.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering meatpacking plants to stay open amid the looming shortage, according to the newspaper.
Tyson isn’t the only meat company whose workforce has been hit by the coronavirus.
A Smithfield Foods plant was forced to close last month after 783 workers tested positive for COVID-19, two of them dying, NBC News reported.
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