In Germany, an isolated outbreak at an abattoir is one of the reasons cited for a rise in the country’s reproduction (R) number to 2.88.
R is the average number of people who someone with Covid-19 could infect. A number below one is seen as necessary to contain the spread of the disease.
The Tönnies meat processing plant in the Gütersloh area of North Rhine-Westphalia has now reported more than 1,500 infections, out of a total of 7,000 workers.
State premier Armin Laschet says schools and kindergartens have already been shut in the immediate area and 7,000 people have been put into quarantine. Now public health officials are deciding whether to go further.
An opinion piece on the Deutsche Welle website suggests an outbreak at Europe’s largest meat processing plant was “a disaster that was bound to happen and just as preventable”.