Lee County

A small storefront has become a Latino grocery store called Tienda Centro reads the sign. Siler City has one of the highest rates of COVID infection in North Carolina

Latinos, the coronavirus and a single ZIP code

May 29, 2020 by Greg Barnes Leave a Comment

Latinos, the coronavirus and a single ZIP code - North Carolina Health News

The 27344 ZIP code, which includes Siler City and Mountaire Farms, has become a hotspot for the coronavirus in North Carolina. Latinos who live in the ZIP code are suffering greatly, but nonprofit organizations can only do so much.

By Greg Barnes and Victoria Bouloubasis This story is being co-published with Enlace Latino NC. Read it here in Spanish. Maricela Martinez still remembers getting her first paycheck from a chicken processing plant in Siler City — $280 for a week’s worth of work back in 1999. “It made me cry,” Martinez said. “This was […]

We see a tent with several people in it who are wearing head-to-toe personal protective equipment, thyr'e talking to someone in a car who is waiting to b tested for COVID-19

Coronavirus Today – May 28 – Bars, senators and Cooper; COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase; NC poet laureate joins information campaign

May 28, 2020 by Editor Leave a Comment

Coronavirus Today – May 28 – Bars, senators and Cooper; COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase; NC poet laureate joins information campaign - North Carolina Health News

As NC bar owners cry foul, lawmakers look to weaken the governor’s executive order.

By North Carolina Health News staff Senate wants to open bars outdoors as hospitalizations rise The state Senate approved a proposal that would allow bars to open in outdoor spaces at half their capacity or for no more than 100 people despite the governor’s safer-at-home order prohibiting such action due to concerns of spreading coronavirus. […]

we look through a chain link fence into an industrial complex / poultry plantwhere multiple workers have tested positive for COVID-19

As COVID races through Mountaire Farms poultry plant, workers deemed vital feel dispensable

May 28, 2020 by Victoria Bouloubasis Leave a Comment

As COVID races through Mountaire Farms poultry plant, workers deemed vital feel dispensable - North Carolina Health News

Mountaire criticized for moving too slowly to protect workers who weren’t aware of coronavirus cases in workplace.

By Victoria Bouloubasis and Greg Barnes This story is being co-published with Enlace Latino NC. Read it here in Spanish. On a rapidly moving production line at Mountaire Farms in Siler City, Ana uses a sharp knife to slice the wings off a chicken in less than two seconds, making sure they land into a […]

shows trend lines for COVID-like illnesses in the emergency departments higher than in prior years, but decreasing overall

Coronavirus Today – May 5 – Cooper eases restrictions as of Friday, reporting on nursing home, meat processor outbreaks

May 5, 2020 by Editor

Coronavirus Today – May 5 – Cooper eases restrictions as of Friday, reporting on nursing home, meat processor outbreaks - North Carolina Health News

Gov. Roy Cooper signs an order to slightly ease social distancing restrictions beginning Friday, as he asks people to "wear, wait and wash."

By North Carolina Health News staff Wear, wait and wash in next phase North Carolinians could have a few more places to leave home for after 5 p.m. Friday, when a modified statewide stay-at-home order signed by Gov. Roy Cooper takes effect. Cooper announced plans to move the state into the first phase of easing […]

The Smithfield Food's hog-processing plant in Tar Heel appeared to be operating as usual on Tuesday, April 28, 2019. Photo credit Greg Barnes

Smithfield’s largest slaughterhouse struggling to contain virus

May 1, 2020 by Greg Barnes

Smithfield’s largest slaughterhouse struggling to contain virus - North Carolina Health News

No one will say how many workers at Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant have the coronavirus, but the plant has reduced employees’ hours in what they say is an effort to better protect them.

By Greg Barnes Early Monday, Lumberton lawyer Dale Godfrey said he got word from workers at Smithfield Foods’ Tar Heel plant that the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse might have to close because of an outbreak of the coronavirus. Godfrey said those reports were bolstered by a plant worker who sent him a picture of a […]

The Smithfield Foods processing plant in Tar Heel employs up to 5,000 workers and slaughters 30,000 to 35,000 hogs a day: Photo credit: Melissa Sue Garrets, The Fayetteville Observer

Two more processing plants identified as having coronavirus outbreaks

April 24, 2020 by Greg Barnes

Two more processing plants identified as having coronavirus outbreaks - North Carolina Health News

The state says 190 workers at seven meat and poultry processing plants have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s up from 118 on Tuesday.

By Greg Barnes Two more meat processing plants in North Carolina are experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, bringing the total number of meat and poultry plants with COVID outbreaks to seven, state health officials announced Thursday. The state Department of Health and Human Services still won’t name the plants or say how many workers have tested positive […]

shows hog carcasses hanging in a processing plant.

Coronavirus invading N.C. meat processing plants

April 22, 2020 by Greg Barnes

Coronavirus invading N.C. meat processing plants - North Carolina Health News

Five processing plants, including the mammoth Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Tar Heel, are experiencing outbreaks of the coronavirus, state health officials say.

By Greg Barnes Additional contributions by Enlace Latino NC staff It didn’t take long for the coronavirus to sweep through a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On March 26, the plant announced its first case of COVID-19. By April 13, more than 300 workers had tested positive. Today the plant is considered […]

A man in a suit, he is Dale Hill, who works at emergency preparedness at WakeMed. If coronavirus spreads in Central North Carolina, the team under Hill may be dispatched.

How do hospitals prepare for an outbreak? The first place to look is their warehouse.

March 4, 2020 by Liora Engel-Smith

How do hospitals prepare for an outbreak? The first place to look is their warehouse. - North Carolina Health News

The state’s emergency preparedness infrastructure, created to respond to natural disasters and terrorism threats, may be deployed should coronavirus spread.

Liora Engel-Smith and Rose Hoban As North Carolina contends with its first case of coronavirus, some in the state have been long preparing to support health care providers should an outbreak such as COVID-19 become widespread. One of those people is Dale Hill of WakeMed, the Raleigh-based health care system. Hill, operations manager for preparedness […]

A faucet with water flowing from it, as an illustration for drinking water contamination, with substances such as 1,4 dioxane and PFAS

DEQ, Greensboro won’t identify industry that contaminated downstream drinking water

October 14, 2019 by Greg Barnes

DEQ, Greensboro won’t identify industry that contaminated downstream drinking water - North Carolina Health News

The release of 1,4 dioxane caused large, temporary spikes of the probable carcinogen in drinking water for Fayetteville and Pittsboro.

By Greg Barnes State regulators and Greensboro officials refuse to identify an industry they say accidentally released a large amount of a likely carcinogen into the Cape Fear River basin, temporarily fouling drinking water for Pittsboro, Fayetteville and perhaps other cities downstream. Greensboro officials and the state Department of Environmental Quality also won’t say how […]

A group of people is placing a playground equipment on the ground, behind them are trees and an excavator. This is part of their efforts to address obesity.

As the rate of lifestyle diseases rises, one obesity prevention strategy is gaining ground

August 6, 2019 by Liora Engel-Smith

As the rate of lifestyle diseases rises, one obesity prevention strategy is gaining ground - North Carolina Health News

A four-county program promoting wellness and preventing obesity through changing people’s surroundings is eyeing expansion to other parts of North Carolina.

By Liora Engel-Smith For many years, Clark Memorial Park in Tarboro had been crumbling. The community of roughly 10,000 boasts one of the oldest town commons in the country, yet the recreation area just blocks away from the county manager’s office was far from charming. Floods from two hurricanes — Floyd in 1999 and Matthew […]

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