(Radio Iowa) — Waterloo’s mayor was being interviewed on satellite radio when Tyson announced yesterday (Wednesday) that its Waterloo plant would be shutting down and its 28-hundred workers will be tested later this week for COVID-19. Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart emitted a sound of relief during The Joe Madison Show on Sirius X-M. “The financial impacts for the city, for the workers is tremendous,” Hart said.

Hart had been publicly lobbying for a temporary closure of the plant after COVID-19 cases in Black Hawk County began to dramatically rise. Hart says the plant employs people from Liberia, Burma and Latin America and those workers will need translators to help navigate the testing system and explain what they’ll be asked to do if they test positive for the coronavirus.