By Karl Plume
(Reuters) – Four workers at an Archer Daniels Midland Co corn processing facility in Clinton, Iowa, have tested positive for coronavirus, the company said on Monday.
The employees and those they have come in contact with have been quarantined and the facility is being deep cleaned to prevent further spread, the Chicago-based grain trader and processor said.
“Right now, we are able to continue operations at the plant with some staffing adjustments. We are continuing to closely monitor the situation and are communicating with employees and local health authorities as things evolve,” ADM spokeswoman Jackie Anderson said in an emailed statement.
Outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, have disrupted food chains around the globe, from shuttering meat processing plants due to sick workers to stalling deliveries of grains and produce amid restrictions on movement.
Iowa is one of the few U.S. states remaining that have not imposed official statewide stay-at-home restrictions.
ADM’s Clinton corn plant is located on a larger ADM complex along the Mississippi River that also loads grain barges serving export terminals near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Tom Brown)
