GREEN BAY (NBC 26) - Sunday, JBS USA announced they are temporarily closing their Green Bay beef production facility.
Last week, the Brown County Health department linked 189 cases to the plant, that includes employees and people those employees had contact with outside of work. JBS was following recommended safety guidelines, according to health officials who toured the facility last week.
“As an essential business providing necessary supplies and services for Wisconsin, we have endeavored to maintain operations to ensure continued access to safe, affordable food,” said Shannon Grassl, President of the JBS USA Regional Beef. “Given the continued spread of coronavirus in our community and among our workforce, we have decided to voluntarily close our Green Bay facility in an effort to help flatten the curve of infections in Brown County. We’ve been focused on doing everything we can to keep the virus out of our facility, but we believe a temporary closure is the most aggressive action we can take to help our community collectively slow the spread of COVID-19.”
This is the fourth JBS plant to temporarily close to help stop the spread of coronavirus. The Green Bay plant currently employs more than 1,200 people and feeds nearly 3.2 million Americans every day, according to the company.
JBS USA said in working with state and local health officials, the company is advising its Green Bay team members to follow Governor Evers’ Safer at Home order while the plant is closed.
It’s important to note, the CDC said there is currently no evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food.
