Coronavirus in rural America (Part XVIII): South Dakota

South Dakota is attracting particular attention today because of the temporary closure of a Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls.  Griff Witte for the Washington Post reports here.  

As governors across the country fell into line in recent weeks, South Dakota’s top elected leader stood firm: There would be no statewide order to stay home.

Such edicts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, Gov. Kristi L. Noem said disparagingly, reflected a “herd mentality.” It was up to individuals — not government — to decide whether “to exercise their right to work, to worship and to play. Or to even stay at home.”

And besides, the first-term Republican told reporters at a briefing this month, “South Dakota is not New York City.”

But now South Dakota is home to one of the largest single coronavirus clusters anywhere in the United States, with more than 300 workers at a giant ­pork-processing plant falling ill. With the case numbers continuing to spike, the company was forced to announce the indefinite closure of the facility Sunday, threatening the U.S. food supply.

Increasingly exasperated local leaders, public health experts and front-line medical workers begged Noem to intervene Monday with a more aggressive state response.

“A shelter-in-place order is needed now. It is needed today,” said Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, whose city is at the center of South Dakota’s outbreak and who has had to improvise with voluntary recommendations in the absence of statewide action.

According to Alexa Lardieri for U.S. News and World Report:

The company said on Sunday that its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, will remain closed "until further notice." The plant processes 4% to 5% of America's pork production, supplying nearly 130 million servings of food per week. It employs about 3,700 people, and more than 550 farmers supply the facility. The company is based in Virginia and employs 40,000 people across the U.S. 

The New York Times reported that 296 of the plant's employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Journalists are quoting experts--especially those who focus on the food sector of financial markets--talking about how a food supply crisis may be impending.  See reporting for the New York Times here and here.   One quote from a New York Times story that calls out the rural angle is this one, quoting Karen Girotra, a Cornell University supply-chain expert:

Labor is going to be the biggest thing that can break.  If large numbers of people start getting sick in rural America, all bets are off.

I'd be interested to know the percentage of folks working at the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls who are immigrants, documented or not.  The Washington Post characterizes the immigrants employed at the plant as "many" and indicates it produces some 18 million servings of pork each day.

More on the coronavirus situation in South Dakota is here, regarding a trial re: the efficacy of malaria meds.