The U.S. Department of Agriculture has closed a wing of its Washington, D.C., headquarters after an employee tested positive for coronavirus and is following all CDC guidelines, Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday.
"The good news is that we have a lot of frontline workers that are out there, food safety and inspection teams that are on the job, because of the critical infrastructure of our food supply," Perdue said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is using the "whole America approach," not just the whole of government, in the fight against coronavirus, said Perdue.
"For example, the USDA has the summer feeding program for school nutrition," said Perdue. "We are working with Baylor University and McLean Global, and Pepsico to develop a program where we can deliver over 1 million meals a week to rural kids that are out of school. Those are the kind of things that have to go on. We have to feed people, while we do remain vigilant and safe in our employees."
He also pointed out at a time when panic buyers are stripping shelves bare, the nation's farmers are "resilient" and "socially distance by their own occupation."
"We don't want to have a panic next fall because we don't have enough food," said Perdue. "We have some supply chain issues ... we are continuing to access and have conversations with our overall food supply chain."