(Radio Iowa; updated) – Tyson Foods has announced Covid-19 vaccines will be available later this week for all meat processing workers at its plants in Iowa. Last Thursday, the governor announced Iowa would be getting nearly 26-thousand doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine this week. Public health officials indicated that supply of the new single-dose vaccine would be enough for ALL frontline workers at the state’s meatpacking plants. Tyson is the first company to announce that its 13-thousand Iowa employees will have a chance to be vaccinated later this week. Mass vaccination sites will be set up at or near the company’s plants in Columbus Junction, Council Bluffs, Independence, Perry, Storm Lake and Waterloo.

A site in Sioux City will be set up for Iowa residents who work at Tyson’s Dakota City, Nebraska plant. Essential workers are now eligible for vaccinations. State officials say employees in meatpacking plants are classified as essential workers because they work in close proximity to others and cannot maintain six-feet of separation.