SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls is closing temporarily after more than 80 employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
The company will suspend operations in a large section of the plant on Saturday, then completely close Sunday and Monday.
Smithfield Foods plans to sanitize the plant and install physical barriers to “enhance social distancing.”
The Department of Agriculture says there’s no evidence that the coronavirus is transmitted through food or its packaging.
Other meat processing plants have also closed temporarily because of outbreaks, including a Tyson Foods facility in Iowa where more than two dozen workers tested positive.
