Salvador Ramirez, a meatpacking worker at JBS in Worthington, died alone in a house not much bigger than a studio apartment a mile from the plant.
His state death certificate said he was 53, but he was 66, said his wife, Maria. The two had been married for 25 years and raised two sons in Chicago. They lived separately after he started working in Worthington.
Ramirez had diabetes. When his wife first saw reports of a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant, she called him.