More than half the workforce at a US meat processing plant have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials have revealed.
Some 730 employees at Tyson Foods in Perry, Iowa, representing 58% of staff, have contracted the virus, the Iowa Department of Public Health told a daily news conference.
Tyson’s plant at Perry was one of 22 US meat factories across the US Midwest that temporarily closed in April. A company spokesman told the Des Moines Register
that it had undergone a “deep cleaning” before reopening.
US meat processing plants have come under close scrutiny during the pandemic. Late last month, US President Donald Trump ordered them to stay open to protect the nation’s food supply. At that time, an estimated 3,300 US meatpacking workers had been diagnosed with coronavirus and 20 had died.
Last month, we told you about the oubreak at the Smithfield pork plant in South Dakota, where more than 600 cases had been confirmed.
