While discoveries of this type of source of contamination are increasing in France, Germany is also affected by the phenomenon. More than 90 employees of a slaughterhouse have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days in the regional state of Lower Saxony in the northwest of the country. The latest example in this sector that Berlin is preparing to regulate more strictly.
A series of tests was also carried out due to the high infection rates in the meat industry observed throughout Germany.
Production suspended
This new focus of infection concerns "92 employees" of a meat "cutting plant" in Dissen. The production was "suspended" and the people concerned were "quarantined", as well as all those having been "in contact with them", they add. The tests were carried out due to the high infection rates in the meat industry observed throughout Germany.
At the beginning of May, 183 people had tested positive in Coesfeld, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west of the country. In April, 300 employees, including 200 Romanian nationals, from a slaughterhouse located in the Rhineland-Palatinate region in the west, were contaminated.
Another abattoir in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein recently reported more than 100 cases, and 60 workers at a facility in Bavaria were infected.
The poor working conditions in these establishments are pointed out, as well as the massive recourse to foreign subcontracting companies for the hiring of the employees, making it possible “to take responsibility” the sector, according to the German food union NGG. The slaughterhouses employ many workers from Eastern Europe, living and working in questionable hygienic conditions.
Dangerous promiscuity
A "large number" of people contaminated in Dissen were employed under a subcontract, specify the authorities. A “part” of them lived in collective habitats, where these foreign employees are housed.
These dwellings are causing growing concern on the part of the authorities, due to the lack of hygiene and the overcrowding which makes them suitable for the development of diseases.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
The Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil, must present to the Council of Ministers measures aimed at better regulating the working conditions of the sector. According to the German press, he is considering banning subcontracts. The minister already called on Monday to "strengthen the responsibility" of companies in health matters, and improve the control of the authorities. "It is time to clean up the area and act," he said.
At least three slaughterhouses concerned in France
Beyond Germany, cases of contamination in slaughterhouses are causing increasing concern. In the United States, several abattoirs have become centers of contagion for Covid-19.
In France, more than a hundred people were also tested positive Sunday at Covid-19 in two "clusters" within two slaughterhouses. In an establishment in Côtes-d'Armor, where six cases were reported on Friday, the tests revealed 63 positive cases, according to the Regional Health Agency.
In the Loiret, 400 employees of a slaughterhouse in Fleury-lès-Aubrais, where a "cluster" of 34 cases of Covid-19 has been confirmed, without serious cases, will have to be screened this week. An outbreak of coronavirus infection had been detected at a poultry site located in Essarts-en-Bocage (Vendée). Among the approximately 700 employees, 11 people tested positive.
