Sioux Falls is home to a large Smithfield Foods pork processing plant where more than 800 employees have been infected by the coronavirus.
For its part, Smithfield released on Wednesday a statement backing the president's decision to use the DPA for food producers.
In a statement, the company said:"The executive order, together with the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor, provides a much-needed framework that prioritizes employee health and well-being, while also stabilizing the country's food supply and preventing the collapse of the agricultural economy.
The statement went on,"The company appreciates the Administration's partnership, along with various other local, state and federal healthcare authorities and public officials and its union representatives during these unprecedented and enormously challenging times." The Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota, which has one of the country's largest known coronavirus clusters, on April 20 in Sioux Falls.While others have also raised concerns about the health and safety risks of opening the plant, South Dakota's governor has been pushing for the facility to reopen.
"This is a critical infrastructure business. I've always talked about our food supply as a national security issue because it's important we feed ourselves in this country, and make that a priority, so I'm hopeful we can get it open as soon as possible," Governor Kristi Noem said in a Tuesday interview with Fox News.As of Wednesday, 2,245 people were confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus in South Dakota. Of those, 1,316 have recovered and 11 have died.
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