Over 200 COVID Cases Force Smithfield to Close Plant

Smithfield Foods announced Thursday that it will indefinitely close its Sioux Falls, SD plant for three days due to the fact that more than 200 employees had tested positive for coronavirus.

The company said it will suspend operations in most of the plant on April 11, and shut down the entire facility on April 12-13.

"Smithfield is taking this action out of an abundance of caution for its 3,700 employees in Sioux Falls, a portion of whom have tested positive for COVID-19," the company said in a news release.

The company also announced that "essential employees" will clean and sanitize the plant during the closure, as well as install additional physical barriers to further enhance social distancing.

Smithfield Foods is taking "the utmost precautions and actions" to protect the health of its employees while continuing to contribute to the American food supply chain during the health crisis gripping the country, according to Kenneth Sullivan, Smithfield president and CEO. "Our Sioux Falls plant supplies nearly 130 million servings of food per week, or about 18 million servings per day, to our country," said Sullivan. "Our more than 40,000 US team members, thousands of American family farmers, and our many other supply chain partners are a crucial part of our nation’s response to COVID-19.”

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