In South Dakota, a Smithfield Foods meatpacker has died of COVID-19 amid the largest single coronavirus hot spot in the U.S. Sixty-four-year-old Agustín Rodriguez passed away Tuesday morning after spending two weeks on a ventilator. He was one of 640 workers at the Sioux Falls Smithfield pork factory who have tested positive for COVID-19. Most of them are refugees and immigrants from around the world.
Smithfield said this week it will also close plants in Wisconsin and Missouri, after workers there tested positive. Other major slaughterhouses have closed due to the virus, including a Tyson pork plant in Iowa and a JBS beef plant in Colorado.