German region to re-impose lockdown after spike in cases

A lockdown is being re-imposed in a German region after a coronavirus outbreak linked to a meatpacking plant.

The premier of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia said on Tuesday he was putting the Guetersloh area into lockdown until June 30 after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there.

“We’re reintroducing contact restrictions, as in March,” Armin Laschet told a news conference. “It is a preventative measure.”

Germany was widely praised for its response to the pandemic but there are concerns infections are rising again.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the national health institute said that the country was at risk of a second wave of infections but said he was optimistic they could prevent it.

Currently the reproduction rate – the R number which indicates how many people one infected person can pass the virus to – in Germany has gone up again to above 2.7.

Reuters / BBC

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