Germany Coronavirus: Over 600 Cases Identified At Meatpacking Plant In New Outbreak

Regional health officials in Germany have identified a total of 657 cases of the coronavirus at the Toennies meatpacking plant, located in the western German district of Gutersloh. Health authorities in the district have received 983 test results so far from workers at the slaughterhouse, with 326 tests coming out negative.

In response, Gutersloh officials closed the slaughterhouse and ordered around 7,000 people in the area to quarantine themselves. Schools and childcare centers in the region are also temporarily shut down starting on Thursday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised the swift response from local authorities.

“We are far away from an exponential increase,” Merkel told reporters Wednesday. “But we see from these outbreaks that the virus isn’t gone.”

Toennies is the leading meat processing company in Germany. Executives at the meatpacking plant say the surge in cases could be linked to workers visiting their families in Eastern Europe, as borders reopen.

Toennies spokesman Andre Vielstaedte said the firm had worked "intensively" to "keep the virus out of the company."

This is not the first time a German meatpacking plant has seen a major outbreak. In early May, the Westfleisch meat processing facility in the western German town of Coesfeld saw over 260 positive cases of the virus, forcing the plant to shut down.

Germany started loosening its coronavirus shutdown restrictions in late April. If an area registers more than 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, restrictions would be reinstated.

Germany has had fewer deaths from the virus compared to major European hotspots such as France, Spain and Italy. Widespread testing and an oversupply of hospital beds have helped German public health officials effectively combat the disease.

On Tuesday, Germany launched a tracing app aimed at speedily tracking down new outbreaks of the virus. As of 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, there are 188,604 coronavirus cases in Germany and a death toll of 8,851.