WINDOM, Minn. — Comfrey Farm Prime Pork announced Tuesday, April 21, it will temporarily suspend operations at its Windom pork processing plant after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
As of Tuesday, Cottonwood County has six positive coronavirus cases, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Company officials said they hope to reopen the plant, which has 650 employees, by Friday, April 24.
"When we discovered our first positive case of COVID-19 at the plant, we immediately activated Comfrey Farm Prime Pork’s COVID-19 response plan,” said Tom Seigfreid, chief financial officer, in a press release. “We developed this comprehensive response plan in March; today’s closure is a part of that plan to make sure we are doing everything we can to prioritize the health and safety of our employees and our communities. Every employee will continue to receive pay, and we expect most employees to return to work this Friday, April 24th .“
The company said it will do a two-day "deep clean sanitization" of the plant and do interviews with each employee for contact tracing and also to determine if any employees are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. The company said it already is conducting health screenings and will enhance those when work resumes on Friday, as well as increasing physical distance measures, which will result in schedule changes.
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The production of some Comfrey Farm Prime Pork products at the plant will be suspended until May 4, the company said.
“We believe these actions will minimize impact in the long term to our hog suppliers and the food supply chain,” Seigfreid said in the release.
Comfrey Farm's move comes just a day after the JBS USA pork production plant in Worthington in nearby Nobles County closed because of a coronavirus outbreak. Cases soared again on Tuesday in Nobles County, rising 25 in one day to 101. Windom also is only about 95 miles northeast of the Smithfield Foods pork production facility in Sioux Falls, S.D., which is closed and is linked to nearly 900 positive coronavirus cases.
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