South Dakota Refused To Shut Down, Now Faces One Of The Largest Coronavirus Outbreaks In The Country

More than 300 workers at Smithfield Foods Sioux Falls facility tested positive for coronavirus, accounting for about half of all statewide cases and making the facility—now closed indefinitely—one of the largest coronavirus hotbeds alongside the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt and Cook County Jail in Chicago. 

Gov. Kristi Noem is one of five governors yet to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, saying that it is the job of individuals, not the government “to exercise their right to work, to worship and to play. Or to even stay at home.”

On Monday, Noem held a media briefing to announce that South Dakota will be the first to host statewide trials to test hydroxychloroquine for treating and preventing COVID-19, a potential treatment touted by President Trump and entangled in political controversy.

Smithfield Foods is the world’s largest pork processor with over 54,000 employees, processing meats under their namesake brand and for companies like Nathan’s Famous, Cracker Barrel,  Farmland, Armour, Kreschmar, John Morell, Healthy Ones and many more, raising concerns about a shortage of meat across America.

12 employees at the Smithfield plant in Arnold, Pennsylvania, have tested positive for coronavirus, though the location remains open, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; the FDA said last month there is “no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19.

While states with stay-at-home orders begin to discuss economic reopening and flattening of the new coronavirus case curve, South Dakota’s Department of Health says “the climb is just starting,” with a case peak predicted to occur from May to mid-June, according to Brookings Register.