Smithfield Foods in St. Charles ordered to temporarily close due to COVID-19
Smithfield Foods Inc. in St. Charles was ordered to temporarily close by the Kane County Health Department due to concerns about COVID-19, officials said.
The move will allow the health department to "work with the company in mitigation efforts as well as providing education relative to social distancing and employee safety relative to personal protective equipment," according to a news release Saturday morning.
Susan R. Stack, communications coordinator for the health department, said she had no additional information to share Saturday, including whether any employees tested positive for the new coronavirus. "It's an ongoing investigation right now," she said.
Smithfield Foods said Saturday it is "fully cooperating" with the health department. The company already had started suspending "out of an abundance of caution" its operations in St. Charles on a rolling basis beginning last Sunday. The facility employs about 325 people who are being paid during the temporary closure, the company said.
The health department's closure order comes three days after Barb Jeffers, the health department's executive director, issued a warning to local business owners, schools and residents of her power to act if they failed to take precautions against the spread of the virus.
The office was seeing outbreaks at nursing homes and manufacturing businesses, and receiving complaints from employees of local businesses, Jeffers said.
Smithfield Foods, Inc. announced Friday that it will suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois, plant beginning next week and until further notice after "a small portion" of its 1,700 employees tested positive for COVID-19.
A Smithfield Foods location in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was shut down earlier this month until further notice after more than 800 plant workers tested positive for COVID-19, ABC News reported. Members of a rural workers' rights group and an anonymous employee have sued the company regarding work conditions during the pandemic.