by Nobel Nothstine, Blue Ink
South Dakota's total number of COVID-19 cases increased by 143 to 1,411 on Thursday, April 16. Eighty eight of the new cases were Smithfield Foods employees. A total of 733 people with connections to the plant were infected, including 598 employees. The plant has 3,700 employees.
A team from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has arrived in Sioux Falls to help with the Smithfield Foods coronavirus hotspot, which has become the biggest single-source of cases in the United States.
The cases connected to Smithfield made it the largest cluster in the country. The previous top cluster had been 585 cases aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam.
Gov. Kristi Noem said the state is "aggressively testing" Smithfield employees and people who have come into contact with them, as well as getting people into isolation as soon as possible.
The Sioux Falls City Council gave unanimous initial approval to a two-week stay-at-home order on Wednesday. But the meeting sparked significant debate among councilors and community members over the order. Many questioned the legality of the order and feared its costs on local businesses. On Friday, April 17, Mayor TenHaken backed off the recommendation completely, stating that new data had shown current measures were working.
A team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toured the plant Thursday. Noem said the team would issue a report, which she would release to the public. The team worked to create a checklist of items to complete before the plant can reopen, Noem said during a press conference on Wednesday, April 15. Noem said she's working with federal officials and Smithfield leaders to get the plant back online to provide relief for pork producers and the food chain.
South Dakota Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said they requested that the CDC bring in occupational health experts to help the state understand Smithfield's coronavirus situation and what the company can do to protect its workers. Smithfield is cooperating with the state, and they look forward to the mitigation efforts so the plant can reopen, she said.
Smithfield employees had asked for help and filed grievances through their union before this all got out of control.
Understandably, Smithfield is being put under fire for not responding when employees asked for protection earlier, instead opting to offer employees who worked through April a $500 bonus.
The parent company Smithfield, located in Virginia, also announced a large donation of meat to food banks across America on Monday, April 13. Smithfield said it would donate 10 million pounds, estimated to be about 40 million servings, of meat. The estimated value of the donation is more than $30 million.
The food donation announcement came one day after the company headquarters announced the Sioux Falls-based pork processing facility would remain closed “until further notice.” The news release also stated employees would be paid for the next two weeks and the plant would resume operations after further direction from “local, state and federal officials.”
