Meat producers around the United States are experiencing a sharp increase in coronavirus infections amongst their workforce. The infections come despite increased safety measures being enacted at plants across the country.
Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN), the largest meat producer in the United States, enacted sweeping measures at its plants across the country as the coronavirus ravaged its workforce. The company deployed on-site medical clinics to its facilities, requiring all employees to be screened for the virus before being allowed to begin work. Within the facilities, workers are required to use personal protective equipment such as face masks, and plastic dividers have been installed between workstations to separate workers.
Despite Tyson's measures, infections at its plants more than quadrupled, reaching 7,000 from 1,600 over the span of a month. The situation is the same across the industry, with many companies reporting an uptick in infections despite the millions of dollars being spent in protective measures. Additionally, only a fraction of the thousands of meat plant employees in the country are actually working; the lack of workers in some plants seems to have had little effect on the explosion of cases.
Despite the explosion in cases, and some data being available, hard numbers on the total number of infections among meat plant workers is hard to come by. Both food companies and health officials have been reluctant to share data with the public, with the common excuse of "privacy" as to why public officials have withheld data. Estimates vary somewhat between sources; the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that roughly 5,000 workers were infected at the end of April, while the nonprofit group Food & Environment Reporting Network estimated that as many as 17,000 have been infected with the virus. Overall, there have been 66 confirmed deaths among meat packing plant workers from the coronavirus.