COVID-19 continues to spread among workers in meat-packing plants.
At Conestoga Meats, the count is now up to 95 workers who have tested positive.
Cargill’s plant at High River, Alta., has had the highest count in North America at more than 1,500 workers. There have been three deaths from COVID-19 that are linked to meat packing plants; one is at the JBS plant at Brooks, one worker at Cargill and one person not employed by, but linked to the Cargill plant.
Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. of Brampton has had one worker die and 24 have tested positive. Maple Leaf Foods Ltd. shut down its plant in Brampton to clean, disinfect and implement more control measures.
Maple Leaf recently said it has had 49 positive cases across Canada.
Sofina Foods has reported two cases, one at Ontario’s largest hog-slaughter plant at Burlington, the other at Mississauga.
Olymel shut down its pork plant at Yamamiche, Que., for a week after nine workers tested positive in early April.
One worker at the Tyson hog-slaughter plant at Waterloo, Iowa, has died. It is the 10th largest pork plant in the United States.
The new mega-poultry plant Costco recently opened at Lincoln, Nebraska, has 19 workers who have tested positive.
Ida-Beef at Burley, Idaho, has 44 workers wo have tested positive, 60 at the Quality Pork plant at Austin, Minnesotga, and 25 more at the Hormel plant, also at Austin, bringing the total there to 39 workers.
Purdue’s pork plant at Sioux Center has 69 workers who tested positive and its plant at Sioux City has 20.
Tyson is testing 2,400 employees at its plant at Storm Lake, Iowa, and expects results soon.
A judge in Brazil ordered JBS to close one of its beef-packing plants in the northern part of the country, saying the company has not done enough to prevent spread of the virus.
