According to data collected by FERN, as of July 28 at 12pm ET, at least 528 meatpacking and food processing plants (372 meatpacking and 156 food processing) and 75 farms and production facilities have had confirmed cases of Covid-19. At least 48,248 workers (37,876 meatpacking workers, 5,240 food processing workers, and 5,132 farmworkers) have tested positive for Covid-19 and at least 191 workers (170 meatpacking workers, 14 food processing workers, and 7 farmworkers) have died.
Source: Mapping Covid-19 outbreaks in the food system | Food and Environment Reporting Network via Food Politics.
This… is pretty bad. A lot these places are almost exclusively staffed by immigrants, who are one of the hardest hit communities as they usually cannot access healthcare like everyone else. Immigrants already actively distrust the federal government under the Trump administration.
My fear and everyone else’s is that this will get worse.