German region under lockdown after slaughterhouse linked Covid-19 outbreak

German authorities on Tuesday slapped new lockdown measures on a western region that has had a surge of coronavirus infections linked to a slaughterhouse, trying to make sure the cluster doesn't fuel a wider contamination in the community.

More than 1,550 people have tested positive for coronavirus at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck and thousands of more workers and family members have been put under quarantine to try to halt the outbreak.

The company has blamed its workforce, which is made up of mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe, for bringing the virus in while union officials say the outbreak is