Corona Vaccination for Employees at Mercer Stendal

Due to the current challenge of the Corona pandemic coupled with the upcoming maintenance outage at Mercer Stendal, the Stendal management team has requested to roll out a company vaccination campaign.

Following discussions with the responsible authorities at both the state and district levels, Mercer Stendal will receive approximately 500 vaccines for a one-off vaccination campaign. This is based on Section 1 (2) of the Corona Vaccination Ordinance (CoronaImpfV), according to which it is possible to deviate from the specified order if necessary due to the epidemiological situation on site. In addition, Mercer Stendal is classified as a critical infrastructure in accordance with Section 4 Para. 1 No. 5 CoronaImpfV.

During a necessary outage, contact with roughly 1,500 contractors and external employees from various countries cannot be avoided. This poses a very high risk of exposure for the employees working on the company’s premises. They, as well as their close contacts in their home environments, are to be adequately protected against this risk with the probability of a potential corona hotspot developing reduced

The vaccines will be administered on site in the company restaurant of the pulp mill by the mobile vaccination team of the Stendal district. The Corona vaccine is offered to the workers on a voluntary basis. 

The company hopes that this will be a further step in the fight against the pandemic. At the same time, management reiterates that the current distancing and hygiene rules, as well as the other protective measures in the company such as rapid tests, are not invalidated by this campaign and will remain valid until a general, social reassessment is made. 

Mercer Stendal is an operation of the North American corporation Mercer International Inc. Mercer operates production sites in Germany, Canada and Australia. 

Mercer Stendal produces pulp, bioenergy and various biochemicals from approximately 3.5 million solid cubic meters of softwood annually. The company employs approximately 455 people, including 30 apprentices. Mercer Stendal’s annual production capacity of kraft pulp is 680,000 tonnes. The biomass power plant at the site is one of the largest of its kind in Germany with a capacity of 148 MW.