× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday she would not consider banning evictions or utility shutoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This news comes after a McLaughlin family had their utilities shut off last week, making it more difficult for them to maintain good hygiene and hand-washing during the pandemic.

Noem also repeated Tuesday afternoon that she won’t issue a statewide shelter-in-place order and won’t issue one for the Sioux Falls area after Mayor Paul TenHaken urged her to issue such an order on Tuesday morning.

Noem said a shelter-in-place order would not have impacted Smithfield Foods, a Sioux Falls meatpacking plant where 438 employees have COVID-19, and 107 of those employees’ “contacts” were announced as COVID-19 cases Tuesday.

“I’ve seen some national stories written that a shelter-in-place would have prevented this outbreak at Smithfield. That is absolutely false. It is not true,” Noem said at her daily news briefing, noting that regardless of an order, the plant “would have been up and running.”

“It is exempted as an essential business part of our critical infrastructure plan to make sure we can put food on the table for Americans and people across the world,” she added.