Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Number Of Meat Workers Testing Positive For COVID-19 Skyrockets
Politico: White House Points To CDC Guidelines As More Meatpacking Workers Infected
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue urged food industry workers on Wednesday to comply with public health guidelines as the number of positive cases of coronavirus among meatpacking workers keeps rising. Two major meatpacking plants have been forced to close in recent days after employees have become infected and some died. More than 500 employees working at a Smithfield facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, have tested positive, leading the plant on Sunday to shut down indefinitely. (Crampton and Bottemiller Evich, 4/15)
The Wall Street Journal: Smithfield To Close More Pork Plants Over Coronavirus Pandemic
Smithfield Foods Inc. said it would close two more pork-processing plants because of the coronavirus pandemic, reducing meat supplies for grocery stores and deepening challenges for farmers. The top U.S. pork processor said it would close plants in Wisconsin and Missouri later this week, after announcing Sunday the shutdown of its Sioux Falls, S.D., plant, one of the industry’s biggest. Smithfield said that employees at all three plants have tested positive for the coronavirus and that the Missouri plant needed pork supplies from the South Dakota facility to operate. (Bunge, 4/15)
In other news —
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hunger Task Force To Help Farmers, Food Pantries With Milk Purchases
The nonprofit Hunger Task Force says it will commit up to $1 million to a newly created Wisconsin Dairy Recovery Program aimed at helping farmers and food pantries. Under the program, farmers will be paid to supply milk to Kemps, a dairy cooperative based in Minnesota, which will process the milk at its plant in Cedarburg. (Barrett, 4/15)
