After shutting down operations for four days to deep-clean the facility, officials at Tyson Fresh Meats re-opened their facility in Dakota City Thursday morning in hopes of resuming limited operations of their beef plant there.
The plant closed down late last week to allow for deep cleaning and sanitization of the entire facility. Officials at the plant said that all team members who have returned to work have been tested, and any employees who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus will remain on sick leave until they’ve satisfied official health requirements for a return to work.
“We have implemented enhanced safety protocols to help ensure our efforts meet or exceed local, state and federal guidelines,” the company said in a news release.
Among the safeguards that have been put in place are:
— Taking worker temperatures and installing more than 150 infrared walkthrough temperature scanners in our facilities.? 
— Conducting wellness checks and screening workers for symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath
— Supplying facial coverings to every team member and requiring they are utilized.
— Providing additional hand sanitizer stations. 
— Implementing social distancing measures, such as installing workstation dividers, providing more breakroom space, erecting outdoor tents for additional space for breaks where possible, and staggering start times to avoid large gatherings as team members enter the facility. 
— Designating monitors at each facility to help enforce social distancing.
— Relaxing our attendance policy to encourage workers to stay at home when they're sick and eliminating the waiting period for eligibility on short-term disability benefits so workers can receive pay while they're sick with the flu or COVID-19.
— Education is an important part of our efforts and we’re doing our best to ensure our team members understand risk factors so that they can stay safe at work and at home.