Angelita said her husband continued to work at the plant even after he experienced symptoms of the respiratory virus because he needed the money. On April 4, he was forced to call out sick after he began experiencing pain in his side. After receiving his positive test, Rodriguez was placed on a ventilator for two weeks before dying.
A number of other employees — some of whom have chosen to remain anonymous — have since spoken out in frustration in regard to Smithfield Foods handling of the outbreak, explaining to BuzzFeed News that the plant allegedly didn’t do much to keep their employees protected and informed.
As cases continued to grow at the facility, employees said they were allegedly only told of the positive tests if they had recently had contact with that specific person, BuzzFeed News reported.
Other employees complained that when signs were plastered around the company, encouraging those who are feeling sick to go home, they were written in English, making it difficult for immigrants and non-English speakers to be in the know, BuzzFeed reported.
“With how we work on the line, I would say I got sick because of them not taking safety measures,” 22-year-old Michael Bul Gayo Gatluak told BuzzFeed News. “When they had their first case, I don’t think they acted accordingly.”
Gatluak shared that after the first case was reported, the facility’s manager allegedly revealed there would be “no changes” to operations.
As for the company’s response to the outbreak, Smithfield is blaming the employees’ home life on the colossal number of cases.
“Living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family,” a spokesperson for the company told BuzzFeed News.
In an April 13 interview with Fox News, Gov. Kristi Noem said that “99 percent” of the positive cases weren’t “happening inside the facility,” but rather at the workers’ homes.
“A lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments,” Noem said.
Smithfield did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
As of Tuesday, there are now at least 780,536 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, the most worldwide.
At least 37,818 people in the U.S. have died from coronavirus-related illness.
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