An outbreak at the meat company “Tönnies”, where more than 1,500 infections were detected in workers, prompted the government of North Rhine-Westphalia to enact the confinement of two neighboring towns, Gütersloh and Warendorf.
Of the approximately seven thousand slaughterhouse workers, seven are Portuguese, three of them have covid-19, but are out of danger and recovering at home, according to information disclosed to Lusa by the Portuguese Association of Gütersloh.
“We did regular tests at the company and some cases came up, but we continued to work, these were the orders we had,” one Portuguese employee told the Lusa agency, who prefers not to be identified.
“They started sending people home, there were groups of 10 people, 15 people, lots of people. It was at that time that we suspected that the disease was spreading,” he added.
She has been recovering for more than two weeks, highlighting the good health care she received throughout the process. About the return to the company, which for now remains closed, there is still nothing new.
“We were working as before, all together, without any different measures (…) They wanted the work not to stop, but of course, when in contact with someone infected, at the outset, sooner or later, we would all be and that’s what happened “, he lamented.
“I don’t have much to accuse, it is a very large company with a lot of people and it is difficult to keep the rules, for example, to keep the distance (…) Now they will have to start complying”, stressed this Portuguese official working on this company for more than two decades.
Armin Laschet, the leader of the North Rhine-Westphalia government, revealed today that a possible accountability of the company is still being assessed.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), in the district of Warendorf, the number of infections has dropped to 47.9 per 100 thousand inhabitants in the last seven days. In the district of Gütersloh, the figure is 177.7 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, on Tuesday the figure was 270.2.
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