When asked by the American News about a positive case at DemKota, South Dakota State Epidemiologist Josh Clayton said there is one case under investigation that involves an employee at DemKota.

“As we do with all the facilities we conduct an assessment of work close contacts as well as community close contacts of all positive cases making special recommendations to that plant to reduce the potential for transmission,” Clayton said [Kelda J.L. Pharris, “Health Officials Confirm One Positive Case at Demkota,” Aberdeen American News, 2020.04.17].

“Like most of you I’ve kept a close eye on the Smithfield outbreak in Sioux Falls and want to be sure that something like that doesn’t happen here,” said Aberdeen Mayor Travis Schaunaman in a video he posted to Facebook. He spoke Friday while standing outside the DemKota plant south of town.

“I’ve worked with Adam (Bode) in the operations management department at the beef plant to ensure they’ve done everything possible to prevent the flow of the virus into their plant and the spread if it arrives,” Schaunaman said

Bode reiterated earlier statements the plant had made about following World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, stating that was a minimum baseline that plant is using in his response to an email from the American News [Kelda J.L. Pharris, “Demkota Announces Safety Protocols After Sioux Falls Plant Outbreak, Closure,” Aberdeen American News, 2020.04.13].