'Significant national outbreak' of cornavirus forces part of poultry factory in Norfolk to close
Norfolk County Council has announced that part of Banham Poultry factory in Norfolk will have to close after it was confirmed that 75 workers had tested positive for Covid-19.
347 staff members at the Attelborough site have now been tested in total, but not all of those results are back yet. As it stands, around 22% of those tested have come back positive for coronavirus.
In this evening's announcement, Norfolk's Public Health Director Dr Louise Smith said the situation is being considered a "significant national outbreak", and that it will be reviewed at the centre of Government tomorrow, 27th August.
As of tomorrow, all 350 members of staff who work in the cutting room area will be asked to isolate with their households. Those who tested positive will have to isolate for 10 days, and those who tested negative will isolate for 14 days.
Most of the workers are thought to live in the following areas:
Breckland
Norwich
Great Yarmouth
The council says the cutting room will be deep cleaned and the staff who work in there are currently being contacted by management at Banham Poultry.
Those who work in other areas of the factory will continue working and the factory will continue to stay open.
Dr Louise Smith also added that they were "pretty close" to getting the final test results confirmed, and that the council does not anticipate the need for a county-wide lockdown.
News of the outbreak originally broke on Tuesday.
Widespread testing of workers at the factory took place earlier this week. On Tuesday, it was revealed seven workers tested positive. Just days later that number jumped to 46.
Norfolk’s Public Health team says they will continue to work with the management team at Banham Poultry and Breckland Council, Public Health England and the Department of Health to tackle the outbreak.
Read more: Workers at Norfolk poultry factory test positive for Covid-19
Read more: 39 more coronavirus cases discovered at Norfolk poultry factory
It comes as production at Northampton's Greencore factory gets back underway after almost 300 workers tested positive for Covid-19.
The M&S supplier closed on Friday, with workers told to self-isolate.
Now, a "small number" of staff members who have completed their self-isolation periods are beginning to return to the site.
Greencore has said: "This process is, of course, being carried out in close consultation with the Department of Health & Social Care, Public Health England and other government bodies."