Covid marshals introduced on buses to Bernard Matthews as more workers test positive

New Covid-19 bus marshals are being brought in after more workers at a Bernard Matthews turkey plant in Suffolk tested positive for coronavirus.

They'll police the free buses provided to get staff to the factory.

Fifty-three workers at the plant in Holton near Halesworth have now tested positive.

Around 1,000 staff work at the site and 125 of them have been tested for coronavirus, with the majority returning negative results.

Most of the workers who have tested positive live in the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft areas.

There's been concern over the rate of Covid-19 in the coastal areas, particularly in Great Yarmouth which has one of the highest rates in the region at 92 per 100,000.

It's prompted warnings the town could have to go into lockdown if the number of cases doesn't stop rising.

Thirty-nine of the 53 poultry factory workers who tested positive are currently self-isolating, with the others having finished their period of self-isolation.

Food production has not been affected.

Latest numbers were released in a statement by Public Health Suffolk, Public Health Norfolk, Public Health England and Bernard Matthews on Tuesday.

It detailed additional measures that have been put in place.

"Whilst Bernard Matthews cannot prevent their staff from being exposed to Covid-19 off-site, at home and in the community, they have introduced extra on-site measures to protect staff," the statement said.

Stuart Keeble, Suffolk's director of public health, said he welcomed the extra measures Bernard Matthews' management team had put in place.