Meatpacking plant linked to third of all Utah COVID-19 cases still open, officials say

A meat-packing plant responsible for a third of Utah’s coronavirus cases is still open because of an executive order from President Donald Trump, a spokesman for the plant told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Utah’s number of COVID-19 cases spiked over the last week and a half and officials from the state health department attributed one-third of the state’s overall cases to the JBS Beef Plant in Hyrum, KSTU reported. The plant tested 1,024 of its 1,400 employees and 287 tested positive, according to KUER.

Even though Jasmine Morales’ father, who works at the JBS plant, received a call over the weekend telling him he had tested positive for coronavirus, she says he was told to come to work Wednesday, the Tribune reported.

“They just don’t care,” Morales told the Tribune. “They know (he tested positive). They have the information on hand.”

A spokeswoman for JBS denied the company would ask sick employees to come to work, according to the Tribune. But the facility is still partially open because of an executive order that made meatpacking plants an essential business, the Tribune reported.

“We do not have the ability to close them down because of that executive order,” Josh Greer, a spokesman for the Bear River Health Department, told the Tribune. “It’s under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Health experts in Cache County suspect there are more positive cases at the plant, according to KSTU. Many workers are out sick — the usually overflowing parking lot had about a dozen cars Monday, KSTU reported.

“In a small town like this, everybody goes to the same gas station and the little grocery store,” Jordan Nash, a neighbor who lives near the plant, told KSTU.

The Bear River Health Department believes long shifts and small work spaces contributed to the virus’s spread inside the plant and out into the community, according to KSTU. Many of the JBS workers live with large families or several roommates, helping to spread COVID-19, KUER reported.

Workers at other food processing plants in Cache Valley also say they’re feeling pressure to keep working even if they’re sick, according to KUER.

“I received a phone call from a daughter of one of these workers whose company is asking them to return to work,” Cresencio Lopez-Gonzalez told KUER. “So he’s having to decide whether he should go back, even though he’s infected with the coronavirus.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent seven scientists to Cache County to help manage the outbreak at the JBS plant, KSTU reported. They will help with contact tracing and testing for six weeks, according to KSTU.