SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota is closing temporarily after more than 80 employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
The company will suspend operations in a large section of the Sioux Falls plant on Saturday, then completely close Sunday and Monday.
Smithfield Foods plans to sanitize the plant and install physical barriers to “enhance social distancing.”
The plant employs 3,700 people. The Department of Agriculture says there's no evidence that the coronavirus is transmitted through food or its packaging.
Other meat processing plants have also closed temporarily because of outbreaks, including a Tyson Foods facility in Iowa where more than two dozen workers tested positive.