New coronavirus lockdown for 360,000 Germans after abattoir outbreak infects 1,500 workers

FRESH coronavorus lockdown measures have been announced in Germany after an increase in cases linked to an abattoir.

Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, said 360,000 people in Guetersloh county should only have contact with their own household or one person from outside.

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More than 1,500 people have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck and thousands have been put under a quarantine to try to halt the outbreak.

Many of the workers have been isolated in their homes which have now been fenced off.

The governor said people in Guetersloh and parts of a neighboring county will now face the same kind of restrictions that existed across Germany during the early stages of the pandemic in March and April.

These include limiting the number of people who can meet in public to those from a single household or two people from separate households, Laschet said.

Cinemas, fitness studios and bars will also be closed, although restaurants can continue to cater to people from the same household, he added.

Previously, the county had only closed schools and child care centers.

Laschet said the measures will be lifted on June 30 if the situation has improved, but declined to provide specific parameters for how success will be measured.

Germany was among the first to ease Covid-19 restrictions after faring better than many of its European neighbours as a result of an aggressive policy of mass testing.

Another outbreak was reported in the capital Berlin with hundreds of households placed under fresh lockdown.

Authorities said they were "alarmed" at how fast the virus was spreading in apartment complexes in southern suburb Neukölln.