Europe’s biggest pork exporter closes slaughterhouses after 142 workers test positive for Covid-19

The meat giant Danish Crown said it had closed a large slaughterhouse after nearly 150 employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 cases in Denmark and other European countries have shown increases in recent days.

The abattoir in the town of Ringsted, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital, Copenhagen, employs nearly 900 people and slaughters tens of thousands of pigs each week.

Danish Crown said 120 employees tested positive for the virus in an initial round of tests of 600 employees present.

After retesting, 22 additional infections were detected.

“For this reason, we are closing the abattoir for at least a week to try to break the chain of transmission among employees on site,” Danish Crown said in a statement.

The company, one of Denmark’s biggest exporters, is the largest pork-product maker in Europe. Numerous slaughterhouses have been hit with the virus in recent months, especially in neighboring Germany.

The cluster at Ringsted is the main active one in Denmark. Cases in the Scandinavian nation have risen sharply in recent days, with the government shelving a plan to ease restrictions at concert halls and nightclubs.

Aarhus, the country’s second-biggest city, has registered several dozen infections.