HURON, S.D. (KELO) — A meat processing plant in Huron has quarantined a worker who returned from South Korea for two weeks.
The man, who is in his 20s, is the third Dakota Provisions employee to be told to stay home after traveling internationally. He returned from South Korea a week ago. There are 7,400 cases of coronavirus reported in South Korea. The other two workers now quarantined returned from Myanmar, where no coronavirus cases have been identified.
Human Resources Director, Mark (Smokey) Heuston, says Dakota Provisions is asking any employee who travels internationally to stay home for two weeks as a precaution.
Dakota Provisions employees 1,200 people. Two-thirds of those workers are from foreign countries.
Heuston says the company is taking further precautions by sanitizing each of their facilities six to ten times a day.
Dakota Provisions employs 16 people from South Korea who originally came as students to the U.S., but have gone through the EB3 program to have their student visas changed over to work visas.
On Monday, March 16, the South Korean worker who was told to stay home, will be tested at a Huron medical clinic and be allowed to return to work if he tests negative for the virus. The other two workers who went to Myanmar will be tested on Wednesday, March 18, before being allowed to return to work.
Dakota Provisions has informed all of its employees that if they travel internationally, they will not be allowed back at work until after a two-week period of time and they test negative for the coronavirus.
The company is working with the South Dakota Department of Health on the issue.
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