Tyson to temporarily shut down Dakota City beef plant for deep cleaning
Tyson Fresh Meats will temporarily close its massive Dakota City beef plant over the weekend to deep clean amid a coronavirus outbreak that has sickened workers and led to an increase in absenteeism.
Tyson Foods officials announced the shutdown Wednesday night. It is the first major food or meat producer in Nebraska to halt production because of the coronavirus pandemic, though plants have closed in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.
A Smithfield Foods plant in Crete, Nebraska, was to close, but officials changed their minds.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to keep meat and food production plants open to preserve the nation’s food supply “to the maximum extent possible.”
By Erin Duffy and Nancy Gaarder World-Herald staff writers
The Tyson plant, which employs 4,300 workers and churns out enough beef in a day to feed 18 million people, will close from Friday to Monday to be sanitized. Production had already slowed as more workers called out sick.
The company says it is working with the local health department and screening workers for the virus.
Dakota County, where the plant is located, has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in Nebraska, even though its population is only 20,000.
The northeast Nebraska county, across the river from Sioux City, Iowa, reported 75 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, for a total of 704 cases. That’s more than Douglas County, where more than half a million people live.
Tyson and local officials have repeatedly declined to say how many Tyson or meatpacking workers there have tested positive, prompting mayors in the area to call for more transparency about coronavirus infections.
The Sioux City Journal reported earlier this month that a 64-year-old Sioux City man who worked at the plant died after contracting the virus.
While the plant is closed, its unionized workforce will continue to be paid.