Construction may begin after you receive the plan review approval report. Health workers then recommend they self-isolate or quarantine, and get tested if they have symptoms.The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) must approve food service and lodging plans before new construction or remodeling may begin. Cloud city employees.Ĭontact tracing, which is seen as a key to understanding - and mitigating - the spread of the highly infectious disease, involves asking people who have tested positive for the coronavirus who they’ve been in contact with, then tracking down those people to give them information about the virus. The county also has enlisted the help of some St. Stearns County public health workers have taken on the duty of contact tracing, which is typically handled by the state health department. It said company leaders are encouraging social distancing and requiring sick employees to stay home. The company said some items, like thermometers and face masks, took time to get. In its statement, Pilgrim's Pride said the company started responding to COVID-19 in late February, and the measures it’s taken have evolved as CDC guidelines have changed. Ibrahim also said sick workers returned to work after only a couple of days, because they feared losing their jobs. She said the company did provide protective masks and barriers, but not quickly enough. Ibrahim said employees at the plant work shoulder to shoulder on the production line, and often congregate in close quarters in the cafeteria, restrooms and where they punch in to start their shifts. She has recovered but has not returned to work. Nimo Ibrahim, who has worked at the plant for six years, said through an interpreter that she got sick around April 24, and tested positive for COVID-19 at a local hospital. Workers at Pilgrim’s Pride walked off the job on April 27 to protest how the company was handling worker safety. Pilgrim’s Pride, a subsidiary of JBS, which runs the pork processing plant in Worthington, said it has adopted new safety measures, such as testing the temperature of workers before they enter the plant providing protective masks and barriers increased sanitation and promoting social distancing by staggering start times and breaks. The company said it hopes to reopen later this week.
Jennie-O, which is owned by Hormel Foods, shut down operations at the Melrose plant on April 28 to offer testing for workers and deep-clean the facility. “But I don’t know that we can say it started there, but it certainly has impacted what we’re seeing in the community.” “It certainly has played a role in transmission, there’s no doubt about that,” she said. But the Minnesota Department of Health said, as of Thursday, 83 employees of Pilgrim’s Pride and 19 of Jennie-O had confirmed cases of COVID-19.įrauendienst said it’s difficult to say whether the plants are the “epicenter” of the disease in Stearns County. The poultry plants haven’t disclosed the exact numbers of workers who have tested positive. “We knew that when we test, we’re going to find the disease,” she said.
The increase wasn’t a surprise, Frauendienst said, given a recent push by local health care provider CentraCare Health to boost testing. Stearns County’s positive case numbers climbed swiftly, from just 55 early last week to 1,161 on Thursday. “We are following all CDC and OSHA-issued guidance around safety and social distancing, and we’re doing everything possible to provide a safe working environment for our team members,” said Nikki Richardson, a spokesperson for JBS USA, which owns Pilgrim’s Pride. Nationwide Trump order keeping meat packing plants open worries unionsĬAIR said employees reported that the company is forcing them to keep working at the plant even if they’re sick is not providing adequate personal protective equipment and sanitation and is forcing employees to take group breaks in the same lunchroom, even as state health officials continue to recommend social distancing and self-quarantine.īoth Pilgrim’s Pride and Jennie-O, which owns a turkey processing facility in Melrose, say they’ve taken numerous steps to protect workers’ health and safety.Thursday's latest on COVID-19 in MN Deaths top 500 total cases cross 9K.Pork processing resumes at JBS plant shut down by pandemic