Posted on 04/15/2020 6:08:44 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the latest comments from JBS officials, and the date of the re-opening has also been updated as that timeline shifted since the original release.
The JBS Swift beef plant in Greeley was ordered to close this past Friday, April 10, through Wednesday, as a result of the spread of COVID-19 in the plant, according to a letter released by the Weld health department Monday afternoon. The company says it will close through April 27.
The official public health order, signed by both Weld Department of Public Health and Environment director Mark Wallace and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment director Jill Hunsaker Ryan, decreed that the plant close down effective immediately April 10 and not open until 5 a.m. Wednesday.
A release from JBS dated April 13 indicates the plant will close through April 24 in an effort to help combat the spread of coronavirus.
Another letter from the county, dated April 4, was also released to the media, this one recommending JBS put in place procedures it long said were already in place.
The order indicated that screening, testing and cleaning must take place during the closure. It also runs contrary to the notion set forth by JBS in a letter released to the media Friday afternoon that the closure was of JBS’s own volition and intention, though that letter only said that the plant would use the Easter holiday and a collectively bargained day off Monday for testing and did not explicitly say that the plant would close at all. A JBS spokesperson, Cameron Bruett, replied to a question by the Greeley Tribune by text message Friday evening clarifying the plant would close Tuesday, as well.
Several sources over the weekend informed the Greeley Tribune that the plant canceled testing Sunday through Tuesday. Bruett, in an email exchange, said that “We made the more aggressive decision to quarantine all team members.”
However, Bruett acknowledged multiple reports from plant sources that the plant will bring in a reduced staff to ramp down the plant Tuesday and Wednesday, even though the public health order requires the plant to be closed through Wednesday morning. Bruett said in another email that JBS reached an agreement with the Weld County Department of Public Health to operate on a limited basis Tuesday and Wednesday.
At the time of Friday’s public health order, the letter from the county and state reads that at least 43 confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported from JBS employees since March 25. Tuesday, in an interview with the Greeley Tribune, JBS CEO Andre Nogueira said definitively that fewer than 3% of the cases in Weld County were from JBS. Whether Nogueira knew it or not at the time, that appears to not have been the case.
Nogueira also said then that he was “100% confident” in the health safety of his employees inside the plant.
Among these confirmed cases, the letter continues, 14 have been hospitalized, eight have been intubated and at least two have died. Those two, Saul Sanchez and Eduardo Conchas de la Cruz, died Tuesday and Friday, respectively.
“We are also aware that from March 1 – April 2 there were at least 277 unduplicated visits to three major clinical partners in Weld County by JBS employees and some covered dependents who were evaluated for respiratory illness suspected or confirmed as COVID-19,” the order continued. “In comparison, in one of Greeley’s largest healthcare systems the average visits per day by JBS employees/dependents in February was two. While the vast majority of these cases are from employees who work the first shift at the plant, there are a large number of probably cases being investigated that include employees who work the second shift.
“We are also hearing that the outbreak has spread to other areas in Weld County and at least two other counties, resulting in additional hospitalizations. The rapid nature of the spread of disease among JBS employees is very concerning, and the exponential spread of this disease across an employee population of several thousand would be devastating for both the employees and your company, and would quickly overwhelm the medical resources available in the hospitals and other health care providers in Greeley and surrounding communities.”
The order requires that the plant close and test employees. But a flyer posted at the plant and shared with the Greeley Tribune by several sources indicated that the weekend’s testing only was available to those who were present at the plant Thursday and Friday. The flyer stated that those not present on those two days must get tested on their own, even though that’s been largely impossible due to limited testing equipment.
JBS told the Greeley Tribune via an email from Bruett that “the flyer was incorrect. All team members were going to participate in testing.”
One of the notices posted at the JBS plant and shared with the Greeley Tribune by numerous sources inside the plant. A JBS spokesman said the flyer was “incorrect,” and that all team members were going to participate in testing before the plant canceled testing over the weekend instead.
The order also requires that procedures like enhanced reporting and tracking, adequate personal protective equipment provision and, notably, reduced staffing that ensures social distancing upon reopening, be adopted.
Further, the order requires that JBS develop sequestration housing and quarantine housing for tested employees found negative or positive, respectively.
The April 4 letter, signed only by Wallace, was a less formal attempt to elicit compliance. It required the exclusion of sick employees from work, the tracking of exposure from positively tested employees through to other employees, notification of employees who had high-risk exposure, enhanced social distancing requirements and other policies.
Nogueira said all of these policies were already in place when spoke he to the Greeley Tribune April 7, but the joint health departments still subsequently decided to take further action.
The method enforcement of these new rules remains uncertain, though both letters invoke penalties like jail time and fines should there not be compliance. The question of oversight was directed back to Wallace by spokespeople for Weld County and the county health department, though Wallace himself has not been available for interview despite repeated requests during the past week.
The final section of the April 10 public health order said it’s possible the brief closure will not be adequate, and that “if transmission continues, additional measures, including extended closure, may be necessary.” It said the order itself remains in effect until just before midnight April 24 unless sooner rescinded, superseded or amended in writing.
This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
Cuyler Meade is the public money reporter at the Greeley Tribune. Reach him at 970-392-4487 or cmeade@greeleytribune.com, or follow him on Twitter @CuylerMeade.
Whew! For a moment, I thought JBS was the John Birch Society. Are they still around?
They have had a third employee die.
The last names listed are all latino (Sanchez, de la Cruz)... it is Greeley... one of the central hub of illegals in CO. So, unless Somalis are taking latino last names...
I didn't say all Somalis, I said a whole bunch. They all smell like coconut.
I certainly will not downplay that corona virus is killing people. It is making those with weakened systems, either through age or disease, weaker.
Where I do draw the line is saying that someone who dies of a heart attack, but tests positive for corona virus with no symptoms of infection has died of corona virus.
But, if you die from the respiratory failure, and your body was actively battling corona virus, yeap, you died of corona virus/complications thereof.
The biggest problem with corona virus is the government involvement - either through handing out money or shutting down the world.
Couldn’t agree more.
Tyson Foods pork processing in Columbus Junction, Iowa, closed due to CV. Another place that attracts illegals, including a large number from Burma.
A meat packing plant in Wyoming was shut a few days ago.
Same story - a large number of COVID-19 infections - but a low infection rate in the rest of the state.
In the Midwest, most meat packers are Hispanic.
I assume almost all the blue collar employees at the Wyoming plant are immigrants, too.
Coronavirus can attack other cells in the body besides the lungs, including the endothelium, the lining of the heart and blood vessels. It can put the body into a hypercoaguable state, meaning clots form.
A heart attack may well be one of the ways CV kills.
Do you understand that influenza is not held to that same standard?
The best example, with the best data, is pneumonia.
During influenza season, at least 40% of the people with pneumonia test positive for influenza.
However, less than 10% of pneumonia deaths are formally blamed on influenza.
The same cockeyed standard applies to people who have influenza and then die from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.
If influenza deaths were counted the same way as COVID-19 deaths, there would be at least 250,000 USA influenza deaths - every year.
I was specific that the person who suffered the heart attack did not have any SYMPTOMs of corona virus infection.
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