⁍ BRF’s Toledo unit has had 1,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases while its Carambei plant had just five.

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⁍ BRF did 11,000 coronavirus tests at Toledo alone, and said it is among the meatpackers that is testing more employees.

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⁍ The first food plant worker with a confirmed COVID-19 test in Parana was employed by GT Foods in Paranavai.

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– A deadly strain of coronavirus has hit a meat processing plant in Brazil for the first time, killing at least three employees and sickening dozens more. The outbreak of enterovirus-68, or COVID-19, has sickened at least 3,979 people in Parana state through July 24, health authorities say. Of those, 1,138 cases have been confirmed at BRF SA’s Toledo plant, which accounts for 29% of cases, while just five cases have been confirmed at BRF’s Carambei plant, according to data sent to Reuters by Parana health authorities. “Although most companies have submitted a contingency plan for coping with COVID-19, cases continue to grow significantly,’ Parana health authorities said in an accompanying statement. A doctor at GT Foods, which has had 137 cases and five fatalities at its Paranavai plant, says three of its employees died. But BRF, the world’s largest chicken exporter, says “there are no employees who tested positive for COVID-19 currently working at its Toledo and Carambei units.”