Des Moines, May 30 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Iowa, Tyson Foods says it will halt operations at its Storm Lake meat processing plant after 555 employees — or more than 20% of the workforce — tested positive for the coronavirus.  Buena Vista County, where the plant is located, has the highest per capita infection rate of COVID-19 in Iowa. 

In California, over 200 workers at eight Los Angeles-area meat and food processing plants have tested positive for COVID-19.  John Grant, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, which represents the meatpackers, called on Smithfield Foods to close its Farmer John plant near downtown L.A.

John Grant said: “The outbreak is over 10% of the workforce, and it’s dangerous.  And the problem with this is that it’s invisible, insidious and deadly.  And so, what you do is, when a shark’s in the water, you pull everybody out of the water, and you make an assessment of what’s going on.”