Tina says a little prayer every time she heads to work at a Delaware poultry plant, a plea that this will not be the day that the invisible killer picking off her colleagues comes for her.

With the coronavirus shutting down meat plants and threatening US' food supply, she would rather not be there at all, but US President Donald Trump has designated the sector as strategic, and low-paid workers like her as essential.

"Every day I come, I just pray to God that nothing happens," said Tina — one of few workers who would agree to speak to a reporter, although even she declined to provide her full name for fear of reprisals.

"I want to go home, I have three kids at home, a baby, but I can't do that," she told AFP, speaking behind a mask. "I have no choice, bills are coming from left to right."

Read the full AFP story here.