The U.S. government is falling behind global rivals to protect meatpacking workers from the coronavirus infections, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

In Germany, the government has planned to reverse a labor contracting system leaving the poorly paid immigrant workers vulnerable. Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria, cut down its slaughterhouse staffing capacity to make sure strict spacing requirements. In Brazil, the federal government has set safety rules to help the nation's workers, the report said.

"The U.S. has yet to impose any mandatory safety measures on meatpackers to contain infections, issuing just voluntary guidelines." reported Bloomberg, saying that "the only federal citations against major meat processors resulted in fines of less than 16,000 U.S. dollars, decried as paltry by worker advocates", it added.

Simultaneously, an executive order from the U.S. President Donald Trump has kept the nation's plants running at full tilt since late April.

The U.S. response "has been a mess" and "downright dangerous", said James Ritchie, assistant general secretary of the Geneva-based International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations.

"Coronavirus infections spread rapidly among U.S. meat workers in March and April, prompting major facilities to shutter before Trump issued the order to keep them open. Since then, it's been unclear how widely the virus is still impacting workers because many companies aren't publicly disclosing new cases." the report said.

As of Friday, more than 42,606 cases and 203 related deaths have been confirmed among meatpacking workers, a local news report by the Food & Environment Reporting Network said.

A Germany's study shows that the virus particles can spread more than 8 meters (26 feet) via air in slaughterhouses while the cold temperatures and poor ventilation can increase the infection risk of workers.

Ritchie said a universal slowing of production lines is urgently needed to protect the employees.

"While companies took their own safety measures, including installing plexiglass barriers and issuing protective equipment, the American federal government never stepped in to create enforceable protocols", Bloomberg said.

"This month, U.S. regulators issued their first sanctions against meatpackers in connection with outbreaks." said Bloomberg, adding that" The next litmus test for how well the virus is being controlled at American meat plants is likely to come over the next few months as the weather turns colder, which could help infections to spread more quickly and the period will also coincide with the annual flu epidemic that sweeps the northern hemisphere."

In contrast to the U.S., German and Australian governments implied much more strict measures to meat workers even though the infection situation in the two nations was lower than in America. Germany's Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner is even urged higher food prices to reduce cost pressures on its producers.

"We are currently experiencing a momentum, an opportunity to readjust the meat industry," Kloeckner said in emailed comments to Bloomberg. "That is what we are tackling."

(With input from agencies)