For the first time in Germany, a local reconfiguration was ordered after the appearance of an outbreak of contamination by coronavirus in a large slaughterhouse where more than 1,500 cases of infections were detected.

"We are going to reintroduce containment throughout the canton of Gütersloh", which has about 360,000 inhabitants in the west of the country, explained to the press the leader of the region North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet.

This reconfiguration, initially planned until June 30, will result in the strict limitation of contacts between people, the closing of bars, cinemas, museums, the prohibition of leisure activities in closed spaces.

Restaurants may remain open but will only welcome customers from the same household, said Armin Laschet, potential successor to Angela Merkel and candidate for the leadership of their party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in December. .

These drastic measures, which take place ten days before the start of the school holidays in this densely populated and highly industrialized region, aim to "calm the situation" and "increase testing" for screening.

Germany, hitherto relatively untouched by the virus unlike its European partners like France, Italy or Spain, has been in shock since the discovery of a major source of contamination at Tönnies, in this which is presented as the largest slaughterhouse in Europe. It employs 6,700 people near Gütersloh, many of them from Bulgaria and Romania.

On Monday evening, local authorities announced that 1,553 people were contaminated with Covid-19 in the canton. Some 7,000 people have been quarantined, 21 hospitalized and 6 are in intensive care.

With AFP

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