Kansas meatpacking plant halting work after 5 employees infected with COVID-19
A northeast Kansas sausage plant is temporarily shutting down after five employees tested positive for coronavirus this week, making it the latest meatpacking facility in the state afflicted by an outbreak.
The Johnsonville plant in Holton, the city’s largest employer with roughly 220 workers, will suspend operations Wednesday afternoon, the company told employees late Tuesday. Johnsonville confirmed the shut down to The Star.
The shut down represents the latest blow to the Kansas meatpacking industry, which has suffered large outbreaks in several plants, mostly in western Kansas. Some 1,280 cases and two deaths are linked to seven meatpacking-related virus clusters.
The other plants have continued to operate as the federal government sped testing supplies to affected communities. It’s unclear whether the Johnsonville plant is the first in Kansas to shut down because of the pandemic.
President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to keep plants across the nation operating, a move Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration has embraced. Johnsonville CEO Nick Meriggioli said in a statement “we will resume operations at this plant as soon as we believe our facility and our members are healthy again, and can operate in a safe environment and manner.”
Jackson County, where the plant is located, had just seven positive cases as of Tuesday with no hospitalizations, according to the local health department. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the number includes the employees who have tested positive.
“It’s a tough decision to halt production, but we appreciate Johnsonville for doing this to help us stop the spread of COVID19,” Angie Reith, the Jackson County health officer, was quoted as saying in a statement released by Johnsonville.
Reith said the Johnsonville team implemented aggressive safety measures early and that those efforts “helped immensely in identifying the virus in the facility as quickly as possible.”
Johnsonville didn’t announce when it plans to reopen the plant.
The company said it will pay workers during the shutdown and that it will use the time to put additional safety precautions in place, including more barriers between workstations where social distancing isn’t possible and providing masks for employees to wear in public. The company also plans to test all employees.
Johnsonville had previously been checking worker temperatures and requiring masks on the work floor. Social distancing was also required in breakrooms, conference rooms and other common areas.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Kansas meatpacking plant halting work after 5 employees infected with COVID-19."