Safety. It’s all we talk about. It’s everything we’re doing. It’s what I ask myself every night before I shut off the lights. What else could we be doing to keep our team members safe?

I lead our health and safety efforts at Tyson Foods where, along with a team of internal and external experts in healthcare, ergonomics, epidemiology and more, I help develop and implement the safety measures we are enacting to protect our team members.

Those measures have been significant, and I am proud of all we’ve put in place.

That said, the fight isn’t over. As this situation continues to evolve, we are evolving with it. Today, we announced yet another action we are taking to protect our team members — a partnership with Matrix Medical Network, a leading clinical services company, to help protect the safety and health of our team members as we begin to reopen some of our facilities. These services will help bring peace-of-mind to our team members as they return to work.

Matrix operates a network of locally based clinical providers and a fleet of mobile health clinics that provide community-based services with advanced diagnostic capabilities and enhanced care options.

They will help us protect the team members who work at our facilities, providing them with additional healthcare access to support their individual health needs.

Matrix will provide the following at select facilities:

• Diagnostic (PCR) testing of team members for COVID-19
• Daily on-site clinical screening support at Tyson facilities to help ensure a safe working environment
• Assistance with the environmental design of Tyson facilities to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread
• Team member access to nurse practitioner care with access onsite or through a mobile health clinic
• Employee education and support for personal health goals or concerns

We are deploying medical clinics at a number of Tyson facilities around the U.S. Additionally, the first deployment of mobile medical clinics will be on-site at Tyson Foods facilities in Louisa County, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; Logansport, Indiana; Pasco, Washington and several other locations to be determined. Additional medical clinics and mobile medical clinics will be deployed at Tyson facilities as needed.

These medical clinics and mobile clinics are part of our overall safety efforts, which include:

• A coronavirus task force we set up in January that has implemented numerous measures to protect workers.
• Taking worker temperatures and installing more than 150 infrared walk-through temperature scanners in our facilities.
• Requiring and supplying facial coverings.
• Widespread hand sanitizer stations.
• Implementing social distancing measures, such as installing workstation dividers, providing more breakroom space, erecting outdoor tents for additional space for breaks, and staggering start times to avoid large gathers as team members enter the facility.
• Relaxing attendance policies to further encourage team members to stay at home when they’re sick and eliminating the waiting period for eligibility on short-term disability benefits, so team members can continue to receive pay while they’re sick with the flu or COVID-19.
• Increasing short-term disability coverage to 90% of normal pay until June 30, 2020, for team members who are unable to work due to illness.

What’s at stake is the safety of our team members. To say that it’s the most important thing to us right now is an understatement.

I’m incredibly proud of the extraordinary efforts underway. These medical clinics are just the latest step we’re taking as we lock arms across our company and the country to keep our team members safe.