South Dakota meatpacking plant becomes nation's top coronavirus hotspot

The number of South Dakota residents who have tested positive for coronavirus has surpassed 1,100, and more than half of those cases have some connection to the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls. This comes as Governor Kristi Noem reiterated Tuesday that she won’t be ordering people to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to CBS affiliate KELO-TV.

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Health officials said Wednesday that 180 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last day, bringing the statewide total to 1,168 confirmed cases. Of those, 934 cases were in Minnehaha County, the location of the Smithfield Foods plant, making the site one of the largest known clusters of COVID-19 cases in the U.S…

According to New York Times and KELO-TV data analysis, as of Wednesday, the number of localized cases at the Smithfield Plant made it the top hotspot in the country, with Chicago’s Cook County Jail and the USS Theodore Roosevelt close behind.

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