MEAT PLANT reports two workers positive for virus.

LITTLE ROCK — Two employees at a Boar’s Head meat processing plant in Forrest City have tested positive for covid-19, the delicatessen company confirmed Tuesday.

The employees have been ordered to quarantine, Boar’s Head said.

“The health and safety of our employees is our top priority as we manage around COVID-19 and we have implemented numerous precautions to continue operating safely as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure to keep America fed,” a statement from the company read.

The two covid-19 cases at the meat processing plant add to the growing number of infections in Forrest City, where a federal prison had 332 confirmed covid-19 cases among inmates and 17 among staff members as of Tuesday, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

Elizabeth Ward, a spokeswoman for Boar’s Head Brand, said the plant produces select delicatessen meats.

She didn’t respond to questions pertaining to how many plant workers have been tested for covid-19, the number of employees at the facility, the types of meats produced at the plant and the date when the two employees were told to self-isolate.

Boar’s Head produces various deli meats, cheeses and condiments sold in stores around the country. Positive cases of covid-19 also have been reported at Boar’s Head facilities in Holland, Mich., and Jarrat, Va.

Facilities producing beef, pork and poultry nationwide have struggled to contain coronavirus infections among workers, reducing production capacity during the pandemic and prompting warnings about the potential threat to the U.S. supply chain.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month reported 115 meat or poultry processing facilities in 19 states reported covid-19 cases as of April 27. More than 4,900 workers at the facilities tested positive and 20 workers died in connection to covid-19, the CDC reported based on data provided by states.

The figures compiled by the CDC didn’t reference any facilities in Arkansas. So far, no meat processing facility in Arkansas is known to have experienced a large-scale covid-19 outbreak.

A report published by the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network this week said as of Thursday, according to the Arkansas Department of Health, 64 workers at plants connected to the poultry industry in Arkansas tested positive for covid-19 and at least one worker died.

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump on April 28 directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure meat and poultry plants remain open wherever possible as an industry critical to the nation’s food supply.

Trump’s order granted authority to the Secretary of Agriculture under the Defense Production Act “to ensure America’s meat and poultry processors continue operations uninterrupted to the maximum extent possible.”

Union leaders representing food-industry workers have criticized the order, saying the administration and industry leaders must do more to protect workers in plants and make covid-19 testing readily available to them.

Some employees at meat and poultry plants recently returned to work following Trump’s order, including those at facilities in Iowa,

Washington, Indiana and other states owned by Springdale’s Tyson Foods.

Tyson told investors earlier this month hog processing capacity declined by 50% amid multiple plant closings and production slowdowns, The Washington Post reported.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, foods produced while an infected worker was on the job don’t need to be recalled.

“We do not anticipate that food products would need to be recalled or be withdrawn from the market because of COVID-19, as there is currently no evidence to support the transmission of COVID-19 associated with food or food packaging,” the FDA wrote in a March 17 post on the agency’s website.

“We do not anticipate that food products would need to be recalled or be withdrawn from the market because of COVID-19 ...” — FDA website