A group from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha has completed a tour of meatpacking plants across the state, and says most are doing a good job of protecting workers from COVID-19. The onsite visits included around six meatpacking plants, although officials wouldn’t say exactly which ones. Shelly Schwedhelm is the executive director of emergency management at UNMC and was part of the tour. She said plants have implemented measures to reduce the spread of the disease.
“On the production floors, we’ve seen the use of physical barriers,” Schwedhelm said. “So, plexiglass, thick plastic barriers being placed between these workers on the production line to kind of mitigate there. We’ve seen the use of face shields on their hardhats.”
She said plants still need to do a better job of staging where employees put on their masks. Employees do have their temperatures taken before they enter the facilities.
“Our overall impression after being to about six plants is there’s a lot of well-intentioned leaders who are putting a lot of good things in place,” she said. “And they’re worried, and I think we would agree with this, that I think the bigger challenge is not maybe in the plant but the things going on outside the plant.”
Communities where meatpacking plants operate have emerged as COVID-19 hotspots over the past several weeks. Workers at some of the plants say the mitigation efforts have come too late and were only put in place within the last few weeks.