Residents and business owners of Llangefni reveal shock at becoming Covid hotspot
The cost of the Covid-19 outbreak at a food plant in Anglesey has been felt far and wide.
Yesterday it was revealed 175 people working at the 2 Sisters abattoir in Llangefni, tested positive for coronavirus.
It is understood half of the work force has now been tested for coronavirus.
Production has been shutdown on the site for at least two weeks. The effect of the outbreak is already being felt on the high street.
Many businesses have for the past few days been preparing to open for the first time since the lockdown, and were expecting to welcome back many of their customers on Monday.
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Dai Hughes, who runs a shoe repair and trophy shop, said: "It's a shock all this.
"I was so pleased to have been able to open today for the first time in almost three months but now unfortunately there's now this local outbreak to worry about."
He added: "I had a few customers this morning, but really Llangefni is dead, this is the last thing we need."
The first worker at the chicken plant fell ill at the end of May. By June 12 three workers had tested positive and dozens of others were off self isolating.
Since then more than 400 workers have been tested at Army run mobile testing sites - with 158 confirmed cases by Sunday - showing the scale of the problem.
The company says it introduced a raft of measures to protect workers from the virus.
Keith Roberts who is a butcher said: "There's been rumours for weeks that some of the workers at the abattoir had Covid.
"We've been open throughout the lockdown, and customers were telling us this."
He continued: "I can't see the point of having an Anglesey lockdown as many of the workers live in Wrexham, Caernarfon, Bangor and so on."
Mr Roberts added: "It's been very lonely on the high street being the only shop really open, and I was looking forward to seeing more shops open, and more life but as it stands it hasn't really been the case today-it's a huge setback for Llangefni and Anglesey as a whole."
Michael Williams, whose family business DC Williams & Son, was established 64 years ago, in Llangefni, said some of his customers have contacted him saying they won't be coming into his carpet and furniture shop, for a few weeks as they are afraid of catching Covid.
"I haven't earned anything for over 10 weeks, and now this Covid outbreak is going to have a huge impact on the island," he said.
"It's going to set us all back. Many people won't be coming into Llangefni until it's all blown over."
He continued: "I've heard Asda is even absolutely dead. The employees at the abattoir are from all over Gwynedd, and even as far away as Wrexham, so who knows how many people have been infected by this outbreak."