High River residents are concerned about the 38 cases of COVID-19 among employees at the Cargill plant north of town.

Livingstone-Macleod MLA, Roger Reid, says those numbers are a concern.

"The first priority of course is the safety of Albertans and we want to make sure that we're not overwhelming our system, in a smaller community like High River. I'm in Edmonton to connect with Ministers and others from the Health Minister's office and find out what's being done and what kind of investigations are going on and what the plan is going forward."

For their part, Cargill is reducing the number of shifts per day and doing what they can to comply with social distancing rules in the plant.

The company says other measures include temperature testing, enhanced cleaning and sanitizing, prohibiting visitors, adopting social distancing practices where possible and offering staggered breaks and shift flexibility.

The union representing workers, wants the plant and others closed for two weeks to "conduct a comprehensive assessment of their safety."

Foothills MP and the Conservatives Agriculture Critic John Barlow, is moving to allay concerns over a coronavirus outbreak at the Cargill plant north of High River.

He says while people may be concerned about the virus spreading in the town, he wants people to know the product coming out of the plant remains safe.

"This is not a foodborne virus in any way. There's no food safety concerns. We did call Alberta Health yesterday (Monday, April 13), and did speak with MLA Roger Reid on this as well. There's no health concerns whatsoever with any product that comes out of Cargill."

Barlow says closing the plant down would have a huge impact on the supply chain.

He says the High River plant processes 4,000 to 4,500 head of cattle per day, and provides 30 per cent of Canada's total beef processing capacity.