Germany May Return To Lockdown After COVID-19 Emerges From Meat Processing Plants

Photo illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The owner of the largest meat processing plant in Europe was held accountable for the mass outbreak of COVID-19. The factory is known to have caused more than 1,500 workers to test positive for COVID-19, said German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.

Hubertus Heil said the entire region had been "held hostage" by the factory's failure to protect its employees. Most of the employees at the meat factory come from Romania and Bulgaria.

Launching The Guardian, Tuesday, June 23, the reproduction of COVID-19 in Germany or the R rate rose to 2.88 over the weekend. Most of the cases resulted from the outbreak at the meat processing plant located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

About 7,000 people have been quarantined as a result of the outbreak. Schools and kindergartens in the region that have reopened are gradually forced to close again until at least after the summer holidays.

Health authorities have accused Tönnies, the meat processing plant, of violating physical distancing regulations introduced to minimize transmission of COVID-19. Authorities said Tönnies was also reluctant to provide workers with contact details, which allegedly hindered tracking, tracing workers and their contacts.

Tönnies argued they had to comply with Germany's strict data protection laws. Clemens Tönnies, CEO of the company that houses the factory, held a press conference last weekend. He apologized for his company's crisis management and said he would take full responsibility for what had happened. But he ruled out resignation.

Minister Hubertus Heil said confidence in the company was "absolutely zero". He accused the factory of not only endangering its workers but also of public health in general. Authorities in the region are considering imposing a curfew around factories in a bid to stop the virus from spreading further.

NRW is Germany's most populous state and has a population of 17.93 million. NRW Presidential Minister Armin Laschet said he might have to go into a lockdown. "That choice cannot be ruled out at this time," he said.

"We have closed schools and kindergartens, which is the first stage in a closure, and we will examine other steps in the coming days," added Laschet.

The great psychological beating of the NRW residents is understandable. This is because residents in other areas of Germany are adjusting to the easing of lockdown rules or new norms in recent weeks. Minister Heil said he could understand the "level of anger" in the NRW region that it would have to return to its strict lockdown.

Efforts are being made to contain the outbreak in the hope that it will be limited to factory workers. The factory has been closed until further notice. Health authorities have been dispatched to cities and communities in surrounding areas to carry out tests. Family members of factory workers have also tested for COVID-19.

However, not all the results of the tests carried out on factory employees are known, so the number of cases is expected to continue to increase. A total of 21 people have been treated in four hospitals. In addition, six people, five of whom are factory employees, have been treated intensively. Two of them are on a ventilator.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn, said the incident illustrates the importance of stopping the chain of transmission before it gets out of control. He urged the authorities to make sure the meat factory employees adhere to quarantine rules and prevent transmission from spreading across Germany. Germany alone has around 6,100 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,058 of them have died.