Around 20 workers at the Snellman meat processing plant in Jakobstad, Ostrobothnia, have been diagnosed with coronavirus infections, according to the company.
The firm's managing director, Roland Snellman, said that a total of about 50 meat processing workers have been quarantined, adding that the outbreak affected the facility's operations.
"Production has had to be reduced somewhat for some [of our] meat products. It has been possible to counterbalance the temporary shortfall through refrigeration [of products]. Additionally, Snellman will distribute a small amount to another processing firm, like Atria or HK-Scan, to be slaughtered and butchered," he said.
Snellmann said the worst of the Covid-related workforce shortfall was over and that internal staff transfers helped to increase production levels.
Substitute workers helped
"Fortunately, people who have previously worked as meat cutters, that moved to other departments, substituted the ill workers. Office workers also came to the rescue to assist with various tasks," he said, adding that the facility's coronavirus outbreak had been stopped and limited to the meat processing plant.
The meat products that were potentially exposed to Covid-positive workers do not need to be thrown out, as coronavirus is not transmitted through food, which both the Food Safety Authority Evira and the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) reported last year.
The meat processing plant has seen isolated coronavirus exposure and infection incidents, but those incidents only affected production minimally.
The Jakobstad facility employs about 800 workers, with about 200 workers at the meat processing plant, half of which are butchers. The company said that some of the quarantined workers would be returning to work on Friday and that a larger group of employees would be back on the job next week.