Airbus has been forced to quarantine 500 of its 12,000-strong workforce at its Hamburg-Finkenwerder, Germany site after 21 individuals tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. As of yet it is not known if this is an outbreak of the more virulent variant that has been spreading rapidly throughout Europe from the U.K. These members of staff have been asked to stay at home while the company decides whether or not this will have an impact on production at the Hamburg-Finkenwerder site.
Meanwhile, German health authorities are trying to establish the cause of the outbreak, a spokesman of the Hamburg health authority said. The announcement was made on Friday and it is anticipated the variant of virus will have been more accurately identified by the middle of this week. “The cause of the cases is still under investigation. We are fully supporting the authorities,” an Airbus spokesman said.
