More than 1,550 workers at a Tönnies pork plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, Germany, are believed to have tested positive for COVID-19.
Employees, many of which are immigrants from Eastern Europe, were tested for COVID-19. Authorities initially reported the number of cases to exceed 1,550, but on June 23 they said the exact number was still being verified.
The plant has reportedly suspended operations.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, new lockdown measures have been implemented for the people of Guetersloh County, where the plant is located, in hopes that the cluster does not become more widespread, according to an Associated Press report in the Kearney Hub.
The governor of the North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, said Guetersloh county residents for the next week will face similar restrictions that existed across Germany during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, including limiting the number of people who can meet in public to those from a single household or two people from separate households, Laschet said.
“We will order a lockdown for the whole of Guetersloh county," he told journalists. “The purpose is to calm the situation, to expand testing to establish whether or not the virus has spread beyond the employees of Tönnies. We will get a better picture of the situation through intensive testing, and can then see more clearly within seven days what the situation is.”
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Tönnies plant, Germany had been recognized for its handling of the pandemic, keeping the death toll in the country five times less than Britain’s.
Tönnies, according to its website, is a family-owned company that is active in several levels of the food industry. Tönnies has an international presence and operates in eight divisions. It has approximately 16,500 employees.
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