FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Lockdown returns to German town after outbreak at slaughterhouse

Lockdown returns to German town after outbreak at slaughterhouse

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia reimposed a lockdown on a municipality that's been hit by a spate of coronavirus cases at a large meat factory.

The measure, announced Tuesday by state premier Armin Laschet, will initially remain in force until the end of June. A total 1,553 workers have so far tested positive at the meat factory near the city of Guetersloh that is operated by Toennies GmbH.

Germany's coronavirus infection rate remains well above the government's target, highlighting the risk of outbreaks. The so-called reproduction factor edged lower to 2.76 on Monday following three straight increases, according to the latest estimate from the Robert Koch Institute, or RKI. The government is trying to keep the figure below 1.0 to prevent a second wave of infections.

"We must continue to be vigilant, the virus is still in our country," Lothar Wieler, head of the RKI, told a news conference on Tuesday. "If we give it the chance to spread, it will take that chance -- we can see that in the current development of outbreaks."

Sven-Georg Adenauer, the Guetersloh district administrator, said earlier Tuesday that additional measures were needed to control the disease after it spread to the families of some Toennies employees.

"We've always said we'd need to take action if the numbers continued to rise," Adenauer said in an interview with ARD television Tuesday.

Meat companies have been able to circumvent stricter rules on working conditions by using subcontractors, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told ARD Monday. Heil said he would like new legislation due to take effect in January 2021 to be brought forward, but that the government needs to make sure it's legally watertight.

There were 496 new infections in Germany in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning, bringing the total to 191,768, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Fatalities increased by 4 to 8,899.

The RKI also provides a seven-day R-value, which compensates for fluctuations. That value was 1.83 on Monday, down from 2.03 the previous day. Since case numbers in Germany are generally low, local outbreaks have a relatively strong influence on the infection rate, according to the RKI.

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