Northwest Iowa — Just like the rest of us, packing plants in northwest Iowa are having to take extra precautions to protect their staff from the possibility of getting COVID-19.
One area packing plant agreed to talk to us about COVID-19 concerns at their facility. Officials at the Perdue (former Sioux Preme) packing plant in Sioux Center tell us that only one of their workers has been confirmed to have COVID-19. The employee self-isolated at home. Officials at Perdue tell us that they check every employee every day for fever and respiratory symptoms. On the rare occasion that they do find someone running an elevated temperature, they turn them over to medical personnel. But so far, only the one person has tested positive for the disease.
Perdue officials tell us they have had very low absenteeism.
Other packing plants in northwestern Iowa had less to tell us. We talked to officials at Premium Iowa Pork in Hospers, and they tell us that they are doing everything that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking of them, and they are being very careful. However, when asked how many of their workers have tested positive for the virus, they declined to give a number or comment on how COVID-19 is or is not affecting their workforce.
Officials at SIIG International in Boyden were more direct, saying only, “We don’t release that information.”
