Throughout the pandemic, R.S., a janitor at Tyson Foods in Dakota City, Nebraska, has been working 17- to 18-hour shifts to keep the building clean and safe for her fellow employees.
The 39-year-old, who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2015, has worked at the meatpacking plant since September 2018. When Covid-19 first began to spread throughout the country last spring, she said the plant and its employees were unprepared for the impact the virus would have.
“Everyone thought, ‘No, not here.’ People were in denial. They didn’t want to use the masks, back when it wasn’t obligated but rather optional,” said R.S., who didn't feel comfortable talking publicly about the company using her full name. “Just in the area where I work, about five people died.”
The plant briefly paused production last May to deep clean the facility after a number of employees tested positive for the virus.
R.S. said that conditions had drastically improved inside the plant since the outbreaks last spring.
“Now I can tell you that I go to work with peace of mind. We have access to masks. We have access to gloves. We have access to [cleaning] alcohol,” she said.
NBC News reached out to Tyson Foods to learn more about how many of its employees were affected by the virus, but a company spokesperson declined to comment on the numbers.
The company said in a statement that it is "taking care of our team members," and they "continue to do our best to stay ahead of this challenging and ever-evolving pandemic."
Local reports, published last spring but not independently confirmed by NBC News, stated that 786 employees had tested positive and four employees had died from Covid-19.
As Nebraska works to improve conditions for employees of the state’s many meatpacking plants, public health officials have set their focus on vaccination.