Brazil’s BRF to give workers respirators to combat COVID-19
BRF SA, Brazil’s largest chicken processor and exporter, will provide PFF2 respirators to all its employees to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
3 September 2020
3 minute read
By: Reuters reports that the new respirators will replace the cloth masks that were distributed among staff.
The agreement was announced as part of a statement from Brazil’s labour prosecutors on Tuesday 1 September.
The measure applies to all BRF's meat processing units in Brazil.
BRF offered no immediate comment on the agreement, which was signed on 28 August and could benefit about 90,000 employees in more than 30 facilities in 10 states, according to prosecutors.
"The agreement represents a major advance in the prevention and mitigation measures for the risk of contamination," the prosecutors' statement said.
BRF has had outbreaks of the novel coronavirus at some of its Brazilian facilities, including its Dourados chicken unit in Mato Grosso do Sul and Toledo chicken plant in Paraná.
In Toledo, where BRF said it carried out at least 11,000 coronavirus tests, 1,162 people had tested positive for COVID-19 as of 11 August, according to data compiled by Paraná state's health department and sent to Reuters. The data showed at least one fatality from COVID-19 complications among workers at BRF's Toledo plant.
The company has said it is one of the meat-packers that has tested most of its workers in Brazil.
On 18 August, BRF said there were no employees on duty that had tested positive for COVID-19 at any of its plants. At that time, the company declined to comment on the fatality tied to the Toledo facility.
