Germany: 400 virus cases at slaughterhouse in new outbreak

More than 400 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded among workers at a large meatpacking plant in western Germany, authorities said Wednesday, in an outbreak that may have been linked to easing of travel restrictions.

new cluster centers on a slaughterhouse operated by Toennies Group in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, authorities in Guetersloh county said. Company officials say it may have been linked to workers taking opportunity to visit ir families in eastern European countries as border controls were relaxed.

Authorities tested 1,050 people at plant on Tuesday. So far, 589 results are in and over 400 of m are positive, local council said. Officials ordered closure of slaughterhouse, as well as isolation and tests for everyone else who h worked at Toennies site — putting about 7,000 people under quarantine.

infections pushed region above threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over a week at which local authorities in Germany have to consider new restrictions. Officials decided to close schools and child care centers across county from Thursday until summer vacation starts near end of month, but chose to avoid a wider-ranging lockdown.

re have been several outbreaks at German slaughterhouses in recent weeks, prompting government to impose stricter safety rules for industry and ban practice of using sub-contractors.

outbreak in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, one of Germany’s biggest slaughterhouses, could cut available supply of meat in Germany. Sven-Georg enauer, he of regional ministration, said a fifth of Germany’s meat products could be unavailable while plant is shut, dpa news ncy reported.

Gereon Schulze Althoff, Toennies official in charge of company’s pandemic response, said that company h been “fighting like lions since February ... to keep virus out of operation.”

Schulze Althoff said he h conclusive explanation for why infections h occurred w. But he ted that many foreign workers h wanted to go and see ir families as European borders started to reopen, meaning that “we were exposed to new risks.”

“We were aware of that, but we ... carried out extra testing of people returning from holidays and so on,” he ded. “But we didn’t succeed in keeping out se sources or this source (of infection) — we don’t kw which exactly.”

He said company has a lot of workers from eastern European countries, and many went home over recent long weekends. He said cooled rooms may also have facilitated virus spreing.

Germany started loosening its coronavirus restrictions in late April and has largely kept infection rates low, though local outbreaks linked to slaughterhouses, church services and a restaurant among or things have caused some concern.

News of Guetersloh outbreak came as Chancellor Angela Merkel was meeting with Germany’s 16 state goverrs to discuss situation.