The risk of infection when working in retail, including in food retail, is not increased. That is the result of a survey of retail companies by the trade association for trade and goods logistics (BGHW) and the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). For this purpose, the researchers from the institutions evaluated data from eleven retail companies with around 331.000 employees.
The proportion of sick employees remained below the mean of the corresponding age group in the general population. There were no significant differences in the trading areas considered. In the food retail trade, for example, which was open in all lockdown phases, the frequency of infections remained inconspicuous.
The protective measures taken by the companies very likely play an important role in the low risk of infection. In addition, all companies surveyed used corona management with their own contact tracking. This very likely contributed to the fact that infections were generally only restricted to individual employees. The cause of the reported infections was mostly even outside the company. Moreover, epidemiological data from different contact scenarios has shown that short contact times, as are typical in retail, generally involve lower risks of infection than longer ones. (Source: Lebensmittel Zeitung)