The largest pork company in the United States closes a processing plant indefinitely due to the increase in employees infected with the new crown virus

The largest U.S. pork company closes a processing plant indefinitely due to the increase in employees infected with the new crown virus

China News Agency, Houston, April 12-Smithfield Foods, a US pork processing company, said on the 12th that it will close its plant in South Dakota indefinitely because of the emergence of a large number of new coronaviruses among employees Infection cases.

According to Reuters, the Sioux Falls factory in South Dakota has been temporarily closed this Saturday. The original plan was to stop work for three days. However, as the number of employees infected with the new corona virus increased, the company issued a statement on the 12th that it would shut down the factory indefinitely until it received further instructions from federal, state, and local officials to resume operation. The plant has approximately 3,700 employees. In the next two weeks, the company will continue to pay employees' salaries.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem recently pointed out that at least 238 employees of this factory were infected with the new coronavirus, accounting for 55% of the total number of infected people in the state. The Mayor of Sioux Falls, where the factory is located, recommended that the factory be closed for at least two weeks.

Ken Sullivan, chief executive of Smithfield Foods, said in a statement on the 12th that the closure of the factory will have a severe, even devastating impact on the US pork food supply chain. On the one hand, it affects the supply of meat in retail stores. On the one hand, farmers cannot supply livestock to processing plants as originally planned.

Smithfield Foods stated that this plant is one of the largest pork processing plants in the United States, accounting for 4% to 5% of US pork production. The factory supplies nearly 130 million servings of meat products to the market every week. More than 550 American family farmers supply livestock to the factory.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, major meat and poultry processors in the United States, including Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc., have also temporarily suspended some of the employees due to the infection of the new crown virus. The operation of the factory.

Tyson Foods said that the company is monitoring the temperature of employees in factories that are still operating, and stepping up disinfection of employee lounges and changing rooms. In addition, isolation devices are planned to be installed between the work stations of the factory, and personal protective equipment such as masks will also be provided to employees.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it is not yet certain whether pneumonia infected by the new coronavirus is a food-borne disease. Currently, there is no evidence that food or food packaging is related to the spread of new coronavirus. The FDA believes that people must clean, separate, cook, and refrigerate food, and follow these key steps to prevent foodborne illness. (Finish)