On Monday, Sanderson Farms Inc confirmed that one of the company’s slaughterhouse workers has COVOID-19. This is the first publicly confirmed case of a U.S. meat plant worker testing positive, but Sanderson has no plans currently to close the plant.
Closures would remove markets for farmers and threaten to tighten meat supplies as consumers are stockpiling due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
Sanderson said the infected worker was an employee at its McComb, Mississippi, processing plant and that the person’s work area was contained to one small processing table. The plant processes 1.3 million birds a week, less than 10 percent of the company’s total capacity, according to Sanderson’s website.
The company sent home the infected employee, along with six others, and said the affected work areas and facilities were thoroughly cleaned.
ecognizing that very few of Sanderson Farms’ employees can do their jobs remotely, the company’s processing and production sites are continuously evaluating staffing needs, as well as on-site health and safety measures to manage through this pandemic,” the statement said.
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