How this Moose Jaw meat plant is preventing the spread of COVID-19

Meat packers in Sask. taking precautions Watch: Meat packing plants in Sask. are taking extra precautions after COVID-19 outbreaks in Alberta. Marc Smith explains.

REGINA — Thunder Creek Pork in Moose Jaw is taking steps to ensure the safety of staff and its product during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal inspected pork processing plant has around 220 employees.

Sask Pork says the facility has been working closely with the Saskatchewan Food Inspection Agency and Operational Health and Safety.

"They started taking the temperature and doing health checks of people entering the plant, they added physical barriers and increased the distances between workers in the plant," said Sask Pork general manager Mark Ferguson.

Ferguson adds the plant has also installed additional break rooms and changing rooms to limit the number of employees in one area at a time.

Thunder Creek Pork is owned by Donald Fine Foods, which is based out of B.C.

"One of the success stories of this pandemic, of all the pork plants in Western Canada, we haven’t had one major outbreak at these plants and its a testament to all the steps that have been taken to protect the workers there," he said.

Two meat processing plants in Alberta have been the source of major outbreaks.

More than 900 workers have been infected at the Cargill plant near High River and almost 500 cases are linked to JBS Foods meat packing plant in Brooks.

Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab says the facilities should be held to the same standard as hospitals.

"Health has been working with agriculture actively inspecting these plants and verifying that the highest level of protocols are in place," he said.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority declared an outbreak at a dairy facility in Saskatoon earlier this week after a worker tested positive for COVID-19.

No other food facilities in the province have been impacted by the virus so far.