Kansas scrambles to contain coronavirus outbreaks threatening meatpacking industry

Just eight days ago, Ford County – home of iconic Dodge City – counted 13 coronavirus cases. By Monday, it had 180.

The southwest Kansas county is a beef processing powerhouse, with mammoth meatpacking plants on the outskirts of the city employing thousands. For about a month, they appeared to be riding out the pandemic relatively unscathed.

But the virus has arrived.

Kansas and federal health authorities are scrambling to contain outbreaks threatening the state’s meatpacking industry, which holds outsize influence over the country’s protein supply. The state’s plants account for roughly 20-to-30% of the nation’s beef processing capacity.

The coronavirus has swept through plants in other states, sickening workers and in some instances shuttering facilities indefinitely. In a particularly severe cluster, hundreds of workers tested positive at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, pork processing plant.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Sunday night announced Kansas is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to test and contain recent clusters of positive coronavirus cases in Kansas counties centered around food and meat processing plants.” Some two dozen employees at an Emporia plant are reported to have tested positive.

The infusion of personal protective equipment and testing supplies into Kansas comes after Kelly repeatedly complained that the state has gotten short shrift from the federal government. The state has also struggled to outbid other governments in the private marketplace and ranks nearly last in per-capita testing.

But outbreaks threatening the meatpacking industry have opened the door to more materials.

The federal government has provided Kansas with additional personal protective equipment and supplies to expand COVID-19 testing in three southwest counties -- Ford, Finney and Seward – and one eastern county, Lyon, which includes Emporia. The counties all house meat or food processing plants.

“Agriculture is a facet of our state’s most critical infrastructure – Kansas doesn’t just feed the state, we feed the world,” Kelly said in a statement. “This is particularly true of our frontline workers in meatpacking plants across the state who process a significant portion of the nation’s supply.”

At her daily briefing Monday, Kelly said the federal government provided the supplies on the condition they be used in the meatpacking-heavy counties. The state received 2,000 Abbott tests, which deliver results in minutes rather than hours or days, and 5,000 other tests that must be sent to labs.

U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran were both involved in securing the supplies. Roberts, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement he had been in “constant communication” with Kelly, who said the senator had called her twice over the weekend.

The announcement came as U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and 36 other Democratic senators wrote to Vice President Mike Pence, urging the administration to step up testing and personal protective equipment for food supply workers, including meatpacking.

The scope of the meatpacking-related outbreaks in Kansas is not entirely clear. The lack of widespread testing has hampered the ability of public health officials to ascertain how far the virus has spread.

Cargill, which operates a meatpacking plant in Ford County, confirmed employees have tested positive but didn’t say how many. Company spokesman Daniel Sullivan said in an email the company is enforcing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for any employee who tests positive and any worker who has come into close contact with a positive employee.

A spokesman for National Beef, which has plants in both Ford and Seward counties, didn’t respond to a question Monday about whether employees at its Kansas sites have tested positive. But the company previously told The Dodge City Daily Globe on April 8 an employee had tested positive.

In Emporia, two dozen employees at a Tyson Foods plant have tested positive, Lyon County Health Officer Renee Hively told WIBW-TV on Monday. Hively didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tyson, which also runs a plant in Finney County outside Garden City, didn’t respond to questions. It has previously declined to confirm cases at its facilities.

“Tyson is in a small, what I understand, controlled outbreak a little bit. But Dodge City got popped,” said Sen. John Doll, a Republican, referring to the Finney County Tyson plant. “And that was the National Beef plant.”

Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Mike Beam on Monday said the increasing number of coronavirus has “undoubtedly” caused meatpacking plants in Dodge City to slow down production based on workforce available.

“They’ll continue to operate, but at less capacity than what they’d like,” Beam said.

Kelly’s office said the meatpacking plants have made changes to prevent the spread of COVID-19, from taking employee temperatures to social distancing within the plants.

Tyson has previously said it is taking worker temperatures and opened up outdoor break areas to help keep employees apart. Sullivan said Cargill is also taking temperatures, providing face coverings, prohibiting visitors, using social distancing and providing shift flexibility.

“All of our production facilities are working their response playbooks, including our facility in Dodge City,” Sullivan said.

National Beef referred a reporter to an April 17 letter from CEO Tim Klein when asked about measures at its plants. In the letter, Klein wrote that employee temperatures are being taken and that have face masks and face shields are readily available. The company has also stepped up sanitization and is staggering breaks, among other social distancing procedures.

“We are being extremely vigilant in our plants, offices, entire operation and supply chain to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local health authorities,” Klein wrote.

The Star’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting

This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Kansas scrambles to contain coronavirus outbreaks threatening meatpacking industry."