September 7, 2020

Brazil's BRF avails PFF2 respirators to staff to keep COVID-19 spread in check

Brazil's BRF SA will provide PFF2 respirators to all its employees to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to a labor prosecutors' statement this month detailing an agreement with the company.

The measure applies to all BRF's meat processing units in Brazil.

BRF offered no immediate comment on the agreement, which was signed on August 28 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 facilities in Brazil have been struck by the novel coronavirus and these locations include the company's 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 COVID-19 tests, 1,162 people had tested positive for the disease as of August 11, 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 said it is one of the meat-packers that has tested most of its workers in Brazil.

On August 18, 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.

- Reuters