Why have meat plants become habitats for COVID-19?

While the pandemic is still not slowing down, more and more countries are rebooting their economies. People return to their jobs. Some of the workplaces become centers of infection. This is the case, for example, in the case of meat plants. Scientists are trying to explain why epidemic outbreaks take place there.

1. Local pandemic outbreaks in meat and food processing plants are still a threat. Scientists are trying to explain why the virus spreads faster in such places
2. As James Wood, a professor at Cambridge Infectious Diseases, a research center at Cambridge University, explains, outbreaks in meat processing plants are probably caused by a combination of factors that, taken together, increase the risk of infection

Local outbreaks of infections in meat plants

In Llangefni on the Welsh island of Anglesey, nearly all shops are closed and the city is depopulated by the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Locals avoid the stores that are in close proximity to the 2 Sisters poultry processing plant, which was closed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. 2 employees tested positive for the SARS-Cov-200 coronavirus.

Employees told CNN that they had not stayed home, even when they were feeling sick, because then they would only get 20 percent. salary as sick pay. 2 Sisters has denied that their wage policy contributed to the outbreak.

It is not the only meat processing factory in the world where an epidemic has broken out. It was similar in Cleckheaton in northern England, where 165 workers from the Kober meat factory contracted the coronavirus.

In Germany, 360 people were quarantined after an epidemic broke out at the Toennies meat plant in Guetersloh, where 000 people work, including over 7 Poles.

In Poland, the epidemic appeared, among others Anita frozen food factory in Działoszyn. The infection was initially confirmed in one employee, then it turned out that still 56 employees from a hundred-person shift were sick. Ultimately, 94 infections were confirmed (out of 500 employees).

See alsoWhy does Lodzkie have the highest coronavirus reproduction rate? Can it be explained?

In the United States, several dozen food processing plants have had to suspend their operations due to the spread of the coronavirus among workers.

Scientists are trying to explain why so many outbreaks occur precisely in food processing factories, with particular emphasis on factories where meat is processed.

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Specific conditions in a meat processing factory

“We can speculate, but I think there are three reasons for fires to occur in these places: people work very close together, it’s damp and cold there,” Dr. Thomas Kamradt, an immunologist and professor at the University Hospital at Fredrich Schiller University, told CNN. in Jena (Germany).

Scientists suggest that cold and humid environments in meat processing factories promote the spread of the virus. Spraying the carcass with water produces aerosols in which the virus can spread.

Earlier studies also showed that the virus, under favorable conditions, e.g. in rooms without direct access to fresh air and sunlight, can remain active on surfaces from several hours to even several days.

On plastic and stainless steel surfaces, it can last up to three days. These two materials are commonly used in food processing plants.

Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science at the University of Edinburgh, Rowland Kao, told the Science Media Center that research has shown that cold temperatures are causing higher rates of flu transmission and survival of other coronaviruses such as MERS. While no such studies have been conducted for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it can be assumed that it behaves similarly.

The issue of maintaining social distancing is also a big problem, not only in meat processing plants, but also in other factories, where employees often work “hand in hand”.

James Wood, a professor at Cambridge Infectious Diseases, a research center at Cambridge University, said that Outbreaks in meat processing plants are likely caused by a combination of factors which, taken together, increase the risk of infection.

See also: How temperature and latitude affect the coronavirus?

The point is that workers have to stand close together for a long time, and if they want to communicate they have to shout over running machines, which favors the transmission of the virus in saliva particles. Another problem is that, unlike, for example, car assembly lines, meat and food processing plants had to work (more or less) during the pandemic, as they play a vital role in food supply.

Therefore, food processing plants should be under special protection of the state during a pandemic.

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