Coronavirus In Pennsylvania: State Leads In Cases Among Meat, Poultry Plant Workers Nationwide
HARRISBURG (KDKA) -- A new report from the CDC shows that Pennsylvania has had the most meat processing plants impacted by the coronavirus.
According to data from April 2020, 22 facilities in Pennsylvania have been affected, with 858 total confirmed cases among workers. A percentage of the confirmed number of cases was not given for Pennsylvania because the total number of employees at these Pennsylvania plants was not known. So far, one worker had died from complications with COVID-19.
Pennsylvania is one of 23 states reporting that workers at meat and poultry plants have workers with reported COVID-19 cases, although the CDC was only provided data from 19 of those states by the end of April. Altogether, 4,913 cases and 20 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported at 115 plants nationally based on CDC data.
The CDC said in its report that it is intensely monitoring the situation in meat and poultry plants due to the risk of community spread, as has been seen in nursing homes, homeless shelters and correctional facilities.
The CDC is proposing structural, operational, sociocultural and economic changes to combat the continued spread of the virus in these facilities. These measures mainly consist of physically distancing employees, requiring the wearing of face masks and the sanitation of areas at regular intervals, communicating with workers on how to prevent the spread of the virus based on their socioeconomic situations and removing financial incentives to work more frequently.