Coronavirus News: Tyson Foods Closes Iowa Pork Factory As Virus Cases Mount

Tyson Foods on Wednesday said that it would close its largest pork factory as the number of coronavirus cases among factory workers continues to rise.

The company said it was going to temporarily halt production at the Waterloo, Iowa, plant but will not lay off its 2,800 employees. Tyson will continue to pay the workers for the time being and will begin offering COVID-19 tests to all employees interested.

Black Hawk County health officials said Tuesday that factory workers accounted for 182 of the 374 confirmed cases in the county.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Iowa has 3,641 confirmed cases with 83 deaths.

“Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, Covid-19 cases and community concerns has resulted in our decision to stop production,” Tyson group president Steve Stouffer said in a statement.

Stouffer warned that the plant closing could cause a disruption in the U.S. pork supply chain that reaches from farmers to the stores carrying Tyson foods.

“The closure has significant ramifications beyond our company,” Stouffer said.

Despite the warning, Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart voiced his support for the decision Wednesday in an interview with CNN.

“We are pleased,” Hart said. “We’re happy that it is finally closing down and taking the necessary steps that we believe will help the situation.”

Production had reportedly been slowing at the Waterloo factory over the last month as more employees continued calling out sick from coronavirus. Hart had previously been calling for the plant to be closed, most recently during an interview Friday with CNN’s Dana Bash.

“I think it's important that we ensure that those that are doing so much, providing food for us, helping Iowa's agricultural basin, to make sure that we give them all the support and make sure that every condition that they're working in is the same condition that we would want to work in ourself, from mayor all the way down to those that are working in our plants,” Hart said.

Tyson said it will weigh “multiple factors,” including the test results, when it looks into reopening the plant.