Cargill is to reportedly suspended operations at a meat factory in North America as health officials said hundreds of the facility’s staff have been infected with Covid-19.

The US-based agri-food giant is to temporarily idle a factory in High River in the Canadian province of Alberta, Reuters reported.

Citing provincial health officials, the news agency reported 360 workers at the plant had Covid-19.

just-food has approached Cargill for comment.

According to Reuters, Cargill issued a statement on Monday that said the plant would be idled once it had finished processing the protein already on-site.

Cargill has given no timetable for when operations at the facility would re-start, Reuters said.

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“Effective today, we have begun the process to temporarily idle Cargill’s High River facility,” the statement read. “Considering the community-wide impacts of the virus, we encourage all employees to get tested for the Covid-19 virus as now advised by Alberta Health Services as soon as possible.”

Last week, Cargill said it had reduced shifts at the plant after an undisclosed number of employees tested positive for the deadly virus. Shifts at the High River facility were cut on 13 April.