There's sad--though not unexpected--news out of Sioux Falls on Wednesday. In the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Makenzie Huber reports in ‘I lost him because of that horrible place’: Smithfield worker dies from COVID-19, that the wife of Augustín Rodriguez is pulling no punches about her husband's demise:
Angelita Rodriguez feels her husband was worked to death.
The 64-year-old Sioux Falls man, Augustín Rodriguez, showed up for every one of his shifts at Smithfield Foods, where he worked for nearly two decades. Augustín kept coming to work even after he began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms like fever and cough because he needed to work.
It wasn't until there was sharp pain in his side that he called in sick three days before he was hospitalized on April 4, his wife said. On April 9, she received a call from Avera telling her to self-quarantine because her husband tested positive for COVID-19.
He was placed on ventilators for about two weeks. He died Tuesday morning.
Augustín's death is presumed to be the first connected to a COVID-19 outbreak at Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls, which has become the largest coronavirus hot spot in the nation with 644 confirmed cases tied to the facility.
Smithfield did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but the Argus Leader independently verified Augustín's employment with the company. The South Dakota Department of Health has also yet to confirm his death, though previous deaths from the virus have been reported several days after they occurred as the department waits for death certificates.
Through her grief, Angelita doesn't blame God for her husband's death. She doesn't blame the coronavirus, either.
She blames Smithfield. . . .
The pain Angelita feels is unbearable, she said.
"I'm left without my husband. What am I going to do?" Angelita said through a translator.
Augustín, who was born in El Salvador and moved to Sioux Falls with Angelita about 20 years ago, worked at the meatpacking plant for nearly two decades in the pork cut department. It was his lifeline, how he was able to support his family.
If he wasn't working at Smithfield, he was either at home or at church, said Cesar Lainez, pastor at Church of God of Prophecy. Augustín's Christian faith was paramount in his life.
"He believed strongly in God and his faith was strong," Lainez said. "Any kind of activity or situation of his life, he always thought about God. He'd rely on his faith and would pray to God."
Augustín was a quiet man, but he made an impression through his actions.
He would visit his mother monthly to care for her. He would always be willing to help at church, and he would spoil Angelita with whatever she wanted, whether it was gardenias for her table or fruit as a treat.
He was happy. He was thoughtful. He was humble, Angelita said. Because of his reserved nature, only a few in the Sioux Falls community were privileged to know him, Lainez said. He held a memorial service online for Augustín on Tuesday. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
"God knows he was a good person," Angelita said.
Still, she doesn't understand why her husband was taken from her, and she's angry.
"In the name of Jesus Christ," she said, yelling through her tears, "these people need to face justice."
It's hard to argue with that. The paper's Lisa Kaczke reports in Coronavirus: Cases surpass 1,100 in South Dakota with 166 more in Minnehaha County:
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Dakota surpassed 1,000 on Wednesday, with an increase of 180.
Cases in Minnehaha County increased by 166 to 934, and in Lincoln County the confirmed cases rose from 55 to 65 cases. South Dakota's total increased to 1,168 cases and Wednesday's increase was the largest bump in cases yet, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. Those numbers do not include people who may have the virus but aren't being tested.
The Department of Health said 518 cases are tied to Smithfield workers. In addition, 126 people have tested positive after being in direct contact with Smithfield workers.
Combined that's 644 of the state's 1,168 cases. . . .
The paper had yet to report Augustín Rodriguez's death in that report.
Elsewhere in the Argus Leader, Kaczke reports in Smithfield Foods now largest coronavirus hot spot in US, CDC in Sioux Falls to investigate:
A team from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has arrived in Sioux Falls to help with the Smithfield Foods coronavirus hotspot, which has become the biggest single-source of cases in the United States.
Eighty of South Dakota's 180 new COVID-19 cases are Smithfield Foods employees, bringing the total to 518 Smithfield employees who have tested positive. There are also now 126 total cases of non-employees that became infected when they came into contact with a Smithfield employee, according to the South Dakota Department of Health.
The 518 employees and 126 non-employees connected to Smithfield makes it the largest cluster in the country (644), according to tracking by the New York Times. The previous top cluster was 585 cases aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in Guam.
'We've totally disrupted our food chain.' Farmers face impacts of Smithfield closure
Yesterday, with her usual charming rhetoric, Kristi Noem repeated her resistance to shelter-in-place orders in AgWeek's SD governor rejects 'feel good' shelter-in-place order around COVID-19 stricken pork plant, now with 438 cases:
Gov. Kristi Noem says she won't issue a shelter-in-place order around a Sioux Falls meatpacking plant that is quickly becoming one of the nation's worst coronavirus hotspots, portraying it as a "feel good" move, Tuesday, April 14.
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken had requested a three-week shelter-in-place order from Noem for Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, home to the city, as the number of cases at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant climb to 438, with another 107 linked to those cases.
"One of the things that somebody told me a week or so ago was that I should always keep my eye on the ball and make sure I'm making decisions to actually do good, not make decisions that just make people feel good," she said after saying she was rejecting TenHaken's request. "That has been one of the things I think about quite often when it comes to pivotal moments when it comes to protecting people's health." . . .
Making people feel good? So that's what the cool kids call being alive these days.
Related posts:
- Shared meat-packing workforce: Sioux Falls COVID-19 cluster may have MN community echo
- We're not New York City: Sioux Fall Smithfield packing plant 4th largest hotspot in United States
- We're not New York City, part II: Sioux Falls Smithfield pork plant closing indefinitely
- We're not New York City, part III: Washington Post reports on Noem's fearless leadership
- Sioux Falls to Consider Stay-at-Home Order; Golfing Still Essential (Dakota Free Press)
- COVID-19 infection cluster in Sioux Falls, S.D. draws contrast with Minnesota (Minnesota Reformer)
Photo: Augustín Rodriguez, 64, was a worker at Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls. His wife Angelita Rodrguez said he died from COVID-19 complications Tuesday, April 14. (Photo: Angelita Rodriguez).
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