A seventh employee of the STX Beef Company plant in Corpus Christi tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Of the seven employees who have tested positive, three have been hospitalized. Annette Rodriguez, director of the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health Department, told the Caller-Times that the county had contacted the state about mass testing at the plant.

Gov. Greg Abbott this week said he's sending a "surge team" to look at an outbreak of coronavirus rates around Texas meatpacking plants in the Panhandle. Such hot spots have continued to grow as the state has moved forward with relaxing shutdown orders across the state. The Panhandle, where a workforce of Hispanics and immigrants powers several meatpacking plants, is home to the highest rates of infection in the state.

The spread of infections in some communities underscores the dangers faced by those working in meatpacking plants who have little power to avoid the virus.