SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday said she was hopeful for a quick reopening of the Smithfield pork processing plant where a coronavirus outbreak infected over 700 employees, though she declined to give an exact date.
After reviewing initial findings from a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that toured the Sioux Falls facility last week, the Republican governor said, “There’s nothing in this report that I think will be difficult to accomplish.”
Noem has often stressed keeping businesses at least partially open during the global pandemic, and she underscored the economic pain felt across the agriculture industry in her Monday briefing. Hog producers have been “devastated” by the shutdown of the Smithfield pork processing plant, she said, while announcing an executive order to allow them to exceed limits on how many animals can be kept at their facilities.
The governor said the report on the Smithfield plant from the CDC will be posted “real soon.” She said it will call for improved social distancing, expanded use of face shields and other protective equipment, and better communication between the company and workers.
Noem’s spokeswoman Maggie Seidel said the Department of Health is waiting for a final sign off from the CDC to release the report.
Coronavirus cases tied to the Smithfield plant account for over half of confirmed cases statewide. In total, 748 employees at the plant and 143 of their close contacts have tested positive.
Health officials reported 50 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, the smallest increase of cases in over a week. All but seven of the new cases were reported in Minnehaha County, where the Smithfield plant is located. The tally of cases statewide rose to 1,685. Seven people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
State epidemiologist Josh Clayton said the downturn in new cases did not necessarily mean that the spread of infections is slowing. The state would need to see several days of fewer confirmed cases to point to a downturn.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
Noem responded to President Donald Trump’s push for state’s to reopen their economies by announcing a committee of medical experts that would evaluate how South Dakota can ease back into regular activity.
But the governor said the state still needs the federal government to send more testing supplies, an important tool to mitigating widespread infections. She said the state has received machines that can rapidly produce a single test result, but has yet to get the supplies to actually run the machines.
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