RANDERS, DENMARK – Danish Crown, the largest pork processor in Europe, announced over the weekend that it would partially reopen a facility on Aug. 21 following a COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the month.

The plant, which is in Ringsted, Denmark, southwest of Copenhagen, will resume production at half capacity.

The facility was shut down after more than 140 cases were found among the 850 people working at the plant, which processes 62,000 pigs per week at full capacity. The pork processor said about 20 employees tested positive for the virus since it last updated its count on Aug. 9.

Slaughtering operations stopped Aug. 10, but because cold rooms in the facility were already full of carcasses, a limited number of workers are planning to process the meat remaining in the cold storage.

Per Laursen, production director at Danish Crown, said the company agreed with authorities to wait for the second or third round of test results that indicate the outbreak is under control before reopening the plant. Around 700 employees will be tested in the second test and about 500 will be tested in the third round.

All employees who tested positive must continue to self-isolate until they are symptom-free for 48 hours. If they are asymptomatic, they must maintain self-isolation for seven days from the time they were tested.