High numbers of covid cases reported among meatpacking workers: at least 269 dead, 59,000 infected

Numbers show that at least 59,000 meatpacking workers have fallen ill with covid-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry in 2020. According to a US House report released on Wednesday, these numbers are three times higher than the ones calculated previously. With workers standing shoulder-to-shoulder along production lines, the meatpacking industry was one of the early epicenters of the pandemic. According to the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, companies should have done more to protect their workers. The report was based on internal documents from five of the biggest meatpacking companies. 

The new estimate of infections in the industry is far more than the 22,400 that was reported by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. This even goes to show that the true number of infections could even be higher because the company documents do not account for the infection reported by outside testing facilities or self-testing by employees. 

Source: CBS News