There is growing panic in the frum community in Postville, Iowa, home of Agriprocessors, the largest meat processing plant in the United States, after three members of the community were diagnosed with the coronavirus.

“We were worried that [the coronavirus] would reach us but we didn’t really believe it would happen since we’re located in a small town at the ‘end of the world,'” a Postville resident told B’Chadrei Chareidim.

“Members of the community recently returned from a stay in New York. We were worried that maybe some of them were carrying the virus. In the last 24 hours, we were told that three family members were diagnosed with the virus.”

Agri-Star released the following statement to YWN:

To our Customers,

As you might have seen in published reports, there have been three confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Postville, Iowa. We can confirm that this is in fact the case. All three cases are in the same family, two parents and an older son, who had traveled to New York for a simcha.

Due to strict, aggressive guidelines already implemented in our facility at the onset of this pandemic, when they exhibited symptoms upon their return to Postville, they were immediately quarantined and will remain that way until medically recommended. In addition, those that were in direct contact have also been in self-quarantine although no one else has shown any symptoms of the virus.

Internally, we have taken even more aggressive steps to educate ourselves and our team members on ways to help prevent or reduce the risk of exposure. We have also implemented additional sanitizing and hand washing procedures above and beyond what was already in place. Agristar will continue to follow recommendations from the CDC and the Iowa Department of Public Health, while continuing to supplement those recommendations with our own enhanced guidelines.

The safety of our employees, our products and our customers is paramount. That is why we have put in place these aggressive measures to ensure the safety and the continued supply of our products during these uncertain times.

There is currently no disruption in our production and no compromise on the safety and quality of our products.

We appreciate the outpouring of concern for the affected individuals and wish them, and all those effected by this pandemic, a speedy recovery.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)