Smithfield planning to continue COVID screenings in new buildings
Sept. 2, 2020
Smithfield Foods is spending at least $200,000 on two new buildings to allow space to screen employees for COVID-19.
The company took out building permits for what it calls two temporary health screening buildings valued more than $100,000 each.
The investments are in addition to $350 million Smithfield reported it spent in the second quarter companywide.
That included $125 million in facility-related costs, including personal protective equipment, hand-sanitizing stations, mass thermal-scanning systems and physical barriers.
Smithfield has appeared to do some screening outside its Sioux Falls pork-processing plant, with employees lined up before shifts start.
Smithfield shut down its plant in mid-April as hundreds of employees tested positive for COVID-19 and reopened it in May.
