South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem joins Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump at the White House in December 2019. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - "I believe in our freedoms and liberties," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, said on Thursday, as she faces criticism for refusing to close businesses and issue stay-at-home orders.

Instead, Noem issued an executive order saying the people of her state "should" follow CDC guidelines and adapt as necessary to the new coronavirus realities.

"I had a real honest conversation with the people in our state," Noem told Fox News's Laura Ingraham.

I told them I took an oath to uphold the constitution of our state, of South Dakota. I took an oath when I was in Congress, obviously, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I believe in our freedoms and liberties. What I've seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a little bit of security. And they don't have to do that. If a leader will take too much power in a time of crisis, that is how we lose our country. So I felt like I've had to use every single opportunity to talk about why we slow things down, we make decisions based on science and facts and make sure that we're not letting emotion grab a hold of the situation.

Last week, Smithfield Foods, a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, closed until further notice after hundreds of workers contracted the Wuhan virus, making the plant a South Dakota "hotspot."

The closure brought more criticism of Noem's refusal to lockdown her state, including from liberal media activists, but Noem says that criticism ignores the fact that the pork plant is an essential business that would have remained open anyway.

"We've got one issue in a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but outside of that, two-thirds of our state has no cases, or one case in an entire county. So we're doing very well as a state.

“We are addressing the one hotspot that we do have, and aggressively testing in that area, but what you talked about, Laura, is exactly right. We should be tracking who's in the hospital, what the death rate is. And South Dakotans are doing a fantastic job following my recommendations and we've been able to keep our businesses open and allow people to take on some personal responsibility,” Noem said.

Noem said her critics are neglecting to mention that the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls is “critical infrastructure.”

“Regardless of a shelter-in-place order or not, it would have been up and running because it's an important part of our nation's food supply.

“So that's what's been happening on the national level, is they've been not telling all the facts behind this. The people of South Dakota can be trusted to make good decisions. We have common sense. That's why people want to live here. That's why I love living here,” Noem said.

According to the latest count from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, South Dakota has 1,311 confirmed cases, more than half tied to the Smithfield plant; and seven people have died.